When the Stars Go Blue
by xh4z3L3y3sx
Summary: Just how much do you have to love someone to be able to forgive? Because nothing is enough for starcrossed lovers. Literati.
1. A Little of This

Disclaimer: I don't own Gilmore Girls or any of it's characters.

A/N: Okay, this chapter has been sitting in my computer for the longest time. And, I'm sorry, but a perfectly good story can't go to waste. I really hope you like this. It's actually going to be very different than anything I've ever written. I'm excited. I really hope you guys like it. I'll continue if I get enough reviews and enough people who want me to add more chapters. So, review please!

--

Beautiful eyes.

Love.

Electricity.

It'll kill you.

-0-

The tall long legged girl, in all of the men's eyes, walked out of the computer class and sat down on the bench conveniently stationed right next to the door. Maybe it wasn't so wise to sit there, in the end. She had a book placed on her lap and she would continuously push her hair out of her face, concentrating on the words that flowed through the book. It was her daily summer schedule. She would wait until her brother came and got her, on that same bench and read. Interruptions were not welcome. But, she made an exception for this one.

He tapped his foot quickly, in front of her, casting a shadow upon her. She took a frustrated look up and gave him the best death glare she could muster up with _The Great Gatsby _running through her mind. It was not love at first site. It didn't exist in her life, and in most of the people around her. 'What?' she asked, putting a place in her book and slamming it shut.

He shrugged, hovering over her. 'Can I sit here?'

She gave him a know-it-all kind of look. 'I don't like it when people hover. It makes me nervous.'

He didn't pay attention, and just sat right down next to her. She wasn't used to this, usually guys would just ask and ask until they got her permission to sit. But, it didn't seem that he was at all interested in her. He treated her as if she was some guy that he knew all his life. The first thing he did was take a ciggerate out and blow a big puff of smoke in her face.

She was disturbed by this, but just opened her book.

He looked straight at her, and watched her mouth the words in the book sentence by sentence. He wondered how many times she had actually read that book. He looked at her up and down, and was curious. She had a tank top, but seemed very petrified by it, since she would just try to cover herself up every chance she got. She had jeans, though. He didn't think that she would ever even go for something so "racy" as shorts. But, she didn't notice one bit that he was staring at her.

He looked at the book cover, it was torn and shattered. He could tell it was old. In tiny letters, "Lorelai Gilmore" was written on the side.

'You know, it's very obvious that you have your name on the cover. No guy is ever going to be able to ask for your name without making themselves look mentally challenged. One conversation piece taken away. What a shame…' He smirked, 'Should I just ask for your phone number?'

She turned her head and looked at him like he had just taken off his shorts or something. 'I don't think that I want to do that.' He could tell that she had moved at least an inch away from him.

He rolled his eyes. 'Relax. I'm not some kind of kidnapper or something. Besides, I'm too good for you.'

This Lorelai Gilmore seemed appalled to be hearing this. 'Excuse me?'

He stuck another ciggerate in his mouth. 'Kidding. God, Lorelai, give me at least a little bit of credit.'

'Rory.' She muttered, tucking her hair behind her ear.

'Rory, then.' He nodded, 'Want a ride?'

Rory sat up, and put her book in her pack-pack. Everything he seemed to say made her want to run farther away. She shook her head shyly. 'My brother's picking me up. Uh—bye.' She said in a low voice, and stood up, walking down the sidewalk slowly.

But, he wouldn't give up. Closely following her, he made conversation. 'Why are you here? You seem smart. I don't think anyone would make you come to summer school.'

She looked back at him and sighed. 'It was voluntary.'

He stopped. 'Oh. Your _that _kind.'

Rory stopped all of a sudden too. 'Okay, I don't know who you think you are. But, I would advice you to not make any more comments to me. And I'm not _that _kind. Just because I like to learn, it doesn't make me some kind of alien.'

He smirked.

'Why are _you _here?' She couldn't help asking.

'Liz made me. Grades haven't been that great.' He shrugged, 'We do live different lives, Rory. I'm surprised.' He said this in a sarcastic tone, and then stalked off.

This whole conversation had been kind of surprising to her, so, her brother had to beep and yell ten times before he got her attention. When she finally jumped into the car, he was curious.

'What's wrong with you?' asked Charlie, looking at himself in the mirror. 'Bad day at geek camp?'

Rory took her book out again and ignored him all the way home.

The door of the Gilmore home creaked open when they finally got home. Their mother, Lorelai also, came running down the stairs as fast as she could. She jumped up and down, putting on her heals with only one hand. 'What took you guys so long? I'm going to be late for my date.' She barked, 'Never giving you the keys again.' She snatched the keys from Charlie's hand and rushed out the door. She completely ignored Rory's other sister, August, who was walking through the door.

August smiled. 'Good. She's finally leaving this stink hole and going on a date. Peace and quiet.'

'Boyfriend coming over?' Charlie rolled his eyes, dropping on the couch and snatching up the control before anyone else could get it. 'Rory, get me a beer, will you? Picking you up is thirsty work.'

'You mean getting off your lazy butt…' She mumbled under her breath.

'What was that?' Charlie looked at her in a threatening way, pointing his big finger at the kitchen.

August took his finger and pushed it down. 'You're a complete lunatic if you think your going to be down here when Tanec gets here.'

'What kind of name is Tanec?' Charlie said lazily, flipping the channels.

'Well, I might as well find a boyfriend that matches the same weird name quality as me. Now get out of here, slug.' She walked up to the television and turned it off.

'Hey, I never even knew that you could do that.'

Rory rolled her eyes, and ran quietly upstairs. She dropped on her head and sighed, she turned her head to a picture of the family picture that she had to keep next to her bed. In the small bedside table. Her cell phone vibrated in her pocket, so she turned her head away from the picture frame and seized her phone.

'Hello?' Her tired voice filled the speaker.

A gruff voice answered, he cleared his voice. 'Oh, sweetheart, hello. It's your father. I was calling to ask about your day.'

Daddy dearest calling for the first time in five months. She heard her stepmother giggling on the other side of the phone. She sat up, sighing.

'I've been fine now, for _five months.'_

'Oh, has it been that long? I'm sorry, baby, it's just been hard to umm, get away.' She heard another giggle escape his wife.

She changed the phone to her other ear. 'It's fine. I've barely noticed….'


	2. Fiji, Here We Come!

Disclaimer: Don't own Gilmore Girls.

A/N: Okay, so, I didn't get much reviews for the last chapter. Not at all. But, I wasn't exactly fair. I mean, I barely gave you anything to comment on. It was a very short chapter. Oh yeah, and don't worry…their backgrounds and everything will reveal itself little by little. Be patient.

Hope you like it. Oh yeah, and if I don't get much more reviews than the other chapter…I can't continue. There's no point in writing something no one likes.

REVIEW!

-0-

**One year later…**

Left and right, all he could hear when he got home was her mother and her new booty call that she liked to call 'a friend.' Now, everybody prejudged her before they even got a chance know her. And not in a bad way. In a good way. Maybe that was the problem. Everyone thought that she was the perfect housewife. They were rich, and had huge house, it was all that they needed to guess that she was perfect. That they were perfect. The thing was, that wasn't the case. She had a new victim every night, her husband would be at work and when he got home, she would sound pleased and give him an innocent kiss.

Jess grew up that way. It was always the high society people with the good influences and beautiful homes…money was all that they could measure. But, it wasn't like he was perfect. Actually far from it. He would stay out all day, so he didn't have to hear his mother wining, he barely saw Jimmy (his father) who couldn't keep his nose out of his papers for a minute. So, he guessed that his mother was not happy. She used alcohol, drugs, and the first guy in her sight to deal with it.

The maid, Jenna, who he had slept with before came rushing to him when he entered the house. It had just been once, but then it turned into a reoccurring thing where he would go to her every time he was feeling lousy. Maybe to see if he could top his mother's noise level. She smiled girlishly, and blushed. She was 16, he was 18. She was still young, and still innocent. But, he had passed that phase a long time ago.

'Jess. Hi. Your mom brought another friend home…so, I was wondering if you would—uhm, _join _me in the other room.' She was timid, but he could tell all she wanted was him altogether.

He tossed his coat to the side, it dropped on one of the Oscar-winning couches. 'Later. I have to pack.'

Jenna looked up, her brown eyes looking up at him. He could sense disappointment in her voice. 'Oh. Are you going somewhere, Jess? Your mother said that you were going to be here this weekend.'

Jess rolled his eyes, 'And did my father also say that he was going to be home for a meal?' She looked confused. 'Get a clue. My mother's a drunk addict, she probably doesn't even know what she's doing this weekend herself. Much less her son..' He muttered.

She smiled, 'Oh, she has a fundraiser.'

He looked at her, shaking his head. She could be annoying and idiotic, she was a kid. Maybe he should have thought about the fact that he was going to have to deal with her trialing behind him like a little puppy for the rest of his life. 'So not the point, Jenna. Now, go do the dishes or something.'

'Wait!' She took him by the arm and placed a long kiss on his lips. 'You never told me where you were going…' She looked seductively into his eyes, he sighed and gave her a rough kiss back.

'Spring break. I'll be back in a week.' He fingered the buttons of her blouse, and then got out of her grasp. She gave him a smirk, then ran back into the kitchen. He sighed and looked at the door. His father was walking through it, he guessed that he had seen what was going on.

Jimmy wrinkled his forehead, 'What the hell do you think you were doing?'

'Giving Jenna a little bonus.' Jess said wisely.

He dropped his briefcase, and loosened his tie. 'You think this is a joke? Well, I hope you know what your doing. You are going to end up in the wrong road some day if you keep this up.'

He shrugged, 'Not without Mommy and Daddy's money.'

'Mock now, pay later.' Jimmy Mariano looked over to the kitchen. 'Your going to get her fired after your mother finds out that her only son has been sleeping with the help. Personally, I don't care.' His son shrugged.

'Gotta go pack, then. Spring break awaits.'

Jimmy actually seemed relieved about the fact that Jess was going to leave the room. He didn't seem to want to talk to him anymore, so, Jess just slipped out of the room and up the stairs. He barely made it up the stairs without a strange man running into him. Jess gave him wise advice to sneak out the bathroom window so he didn't piss off his father, and then slouched all the way to his room, feeling tired. Bad day at school, bad day at home, maybe getting away to Mexico would be a better alternative. Booze, women, friends. He desperately needed that. In the side that he was almost afraid to show anyone but himself.

He took out a random duffle bag that was stored in his clean closet (not his doing, but Jenna's…any excuse to go into his room.) He randomly took a bunch of junk out of his closet, and an old bottle of gel and then stuck it in his bag. He sat down on his bed, counting the money that was stored in the elastic of his boxers.

'Oh, honey.' His mother's drunken body pranced into the room. She was wearing a yellow bathrobe, with an old T-shirt underneath. She had a ciggerate in her hand and a bottle of scotch in the other. 'Your father's home…so, I thought that I would hide out here.'

He looked up from his 20-dollar bills and gave her a look. 'It's the first place he'll look.' He went back to his money, 'Your male partner has escaped out the window…so, don't worry, he'll be good for another week of good old sex.'

She looked shocked, drunken, but shocked. 'Don't speak to your mother that way!' she slurred, barely getting the words out of her mouth. 'You're a brat, that's what you are. Your lucky I don't give you a huge slap in that fat mouth of you--,' She stopped. 'What are you doing? Are you running away?"

'I wish,' He mumbled under his breath. 'Spring break to Fiji. You signed the permission form, remember?'

'I did not.'

'Fine, you didn't. But the name is still on the paper.'

She shrugged, 'So, it's a school…thing?'

'Nope. But the school is paying for our lousy asses to stay in a hotel, for spring break's sake, so, yeah, if you wanted to go cheap…you had to sign. Which, Micheal did.'

She rolled her eyes, and leaned against the doorway. 'You need to stop hanging out with Micheal and start doing your homework. How are you ever going to get into Harvard this way?' She took a gulp of her scotch hastily. 'My whole reputation will be ruined with one lousy son going to some college like…Oh dear, a community college.'

He shook his head to himself and placed all the money in one of the pockets. 'Go barf or something. I need to get out of here.' His mother scrunched up her face in a weird way, but then ran down the hall. 'Got rid of her…' He mumbled under his breath. He heard the yells of his friends, beeping and he rushed downstairs with his bag in his hands.

Micheal, however, was faster than him and beat him to the door. 'Hello, young traveler, and welcome to the Micheal Minibus where only small children can ride and play the strange substance in a bottle game…and then drink it because you can't get through a game with tweedle-dum over there.' He pointed into the car where, Brown, another guy in their little group was vacuuming the floor with a mini-vacuum.

The short guy frowned. 'Hey, garbage cans were invented for a reason…but, no, these people have to insist on throwing chips on the floor.'

Jess smirked, 'Don't pay attention to them, Brownie, (their mock name for him) the more you get bugged by the chips, the more they're going to throw them.'

Another guy stuck his head out the window of the mini van. 'Nuh-huh! We do it 'cause it's fun! God bless America!' He took a swing of his the bottle of beer.

Jess rolled his eyes, 'Hey, Brown, roll up the window in the back seat so we can finally get a visual of Parker headless.' Brownie smirked. 'Let's get a move on, Mike. These twenties are burning a hole in my wallet.'

Micheal raised his eyebrows and took his bag from him. They entered the funky smelling van and they all let out a strong, 'Whoo!' when they were driving out of the driveway.

Jess leaned in to Micheal, 'Honk really hard so the parents get nervous and then someone can call the cops or something…'

Micheal did as he was told, which started commotion with everyone else.

'Goodbye, you fuckers!' Parker screamed out the window, as they drove speedily and carelessly down the street of where Jess lived. Many people looked out of their windows and cursed at them, but they didn't care because they Metallica pumping through their speakers. (The loudest music they could find in Micheal's car. Well, at least under the baloney sandwich that went bad.)

-0-

'Hurry up, will you? My life is flashing before my eyes.' Paris Geller furiously grabbed one of the shirt that Rory had been staring at for the last 10 minutes and smashed it into the neatly packed suitcase. 'If you didn't put it in I was going to scream very loudly. And I don't think that your sister will like the interruption…'

Rory tied her hair up in a messy bun, and looked at herself in the mirror. 'You know what, Paris? My sister's love life is none of my business…I just really need to get out of here. My mom's redecorating again.'

'Trust me, spring break is not the answer.'

Rory smiled, 'Oh really? I heard that it was quite fun in…Fji? Yes, Fiji. Plus, Madeline and Louise know everything in Mexico, they've been to a thousand spring breaks. We'll be guaranteed a fun time.'

'We'll be guaranteed a bar with cute guys that are on drugs.'

She shrugged dapping on some lipstick. 'Maybe that's what I need. A change of atmosphere. I don't usually like to do these kinds of things…I think that's the main reason why we're friends. We keep to ourselves…we're like house mice.'

Paris raised an eyebrow at her friend, 'How could you possibly compare _us _to house mice? It's not even close.' She rolled her eyes, 'Plus, Madeline and Louise are just friends from kindergarten…their not mice…their elephants. And we're going to get stomped on this weekend.'

'Elephants are afraid of mice.' Rory pointed out, smirking.

'Oh my god, how long is this going to take? If I had known it was going to take this long I wouldn't have volunteered to drive you.' Paris complained.

Rory gave herself one last look to see if she had any food in her teeth and smiled. 'Ready. Let's go.' She picked up her bag and rushed out the door. Paris followed close behind, putting on her heavy sweater over her tank top. Rory looked back at Paris as they walked out the door and frowned. 'Are you kidding me? I picked out that tank top just so you would look…what was it that Louise called it?'

'Flirty.' She muttered.

'Flirty. Right.' Rory sighed, 'Never mind. I know nothing about this…ask Louise when we get into the car. Which should be right now…' The girls honked outside, anxious to get going.

They shut the door behind them and got into Paris' car. It was a convertible, due to the fact that Paris was rich and Rory was not. Louise and Madeline barely noticed that they had started driving out of Stars Hollow, because they had some guy's head plastered on to them. Paris was driving, so she took out the book she was reading that book. They could change their route, but she was still the bookworm.

When they were two hours away from Stars Hollow, she was starting to feel nauseous so she naturally put her book away. Madeline was now driving because a half an hour ago, Paris had some sort of break down. So, she was sitting with Louise and two boys. She was holding on to her pepper spray and had a threatening look on her face. The car was out of control, she didn't think that Madeline even had her license.

She buckled her seatbelt cautiously. 'Uh, Madeline, I'm sorry to doubt you and everything…but, do you even have a license?'

Madeline looked at her like she was crazy. 'Oh my god, Rory, are kidding? I would never put you guys in danger. Of course I have a license.' Rory's face showed relief.

'She slept with the guy that gave her the test.' Louise smirked, leaning forward.

'And they say those cars are not roomie..' Paris mumbled, rolling her eyes.

Rory shook her head disapprovingly. 'Then, Madeline, I think I should drive. I don't want us to get into some kind of accident…plus, if Paris drives then she would get another asthma attack. And I doubt that Louise didn't use the same useful technique for the test…' Louise raised her eyebrows suggestively. 'Oh god.' Rory groaned. 'Look, there's a gas station.'

Madeline's eyes lit up. 'Oooh! Snack Store!' She made a sharp turn, making them all practically fall out of their seats and messily parked with one tire on top of the place where you got your gas.

'We're not getting gas, are we? I'm allergic to the smell…' Paris stated.

'Aww…I love the smell.' Louise's victim spoke for the first time.

Paris couldn't take it anymore. 'Okay, both of you, go catch a bus or something. I am _not _riding with you, or even sharing the same air. So, please, do me a favor and get out of my vehicle.'

They did as she told them, and muttered something about "bummy chicks.' Paris went after them with the pepper spray, so Rory had no choice but to go into the store. She saw through the widow that was already flirting with another guy. She moaned, and quickly ran into the mini-mart.

'I'm Micheal…' The guy smirked, taking Louise's hand and kissing it.

Rory sighed, and walked up to them. 'Micheal, hi, I'm sorry, but she's a nun. So, she won't be able to satisfy your needs if you know what I mean..' He looked outraged.

'Hey--,' Louise started.

'Oh no, sweetie, it's okay. Go back into the car and I'll catch up.' Louise gave her the evil eye and stomped off. Rory turned back to Micheal. 'Micheal, I'm sorry, she's just…moody.'

He smirked, 'You're a liar. She is no nun. Showed me the tattoo.'

'She has a—Never mind. Please go away, she's my friend and I don't think that she's looking for a one-night stand yet. Maybe when we get to Fiji we'll find some other, err, guys.'

'Oh really? Fiji? Well, we might be the guys that your looking for.'

Rory raised an eyebrow, 'What?'

'You go to Chilton, don't you? Should have guessed. You seem like you would fit into a plaid skirt. We go to Chilton too, of course. So, we're going to Fiji for spring break too.'

She faked a smile, 'Wow, small world. Anyways, gotta go.'

'Not until I introduce you to my friends.'

He grabbed her by the arm and led her to the counter where three other guys were standing there. He tapped on his friend's shoulder and he turned around. He seemed awfully familiar, but she couldn't place where he had seen him before.

Then, he smirked. And she remembered. 'Rory Gilmore…bench girl. Small world.'


	3. Luck?

A/N: This was a really fun chapter for me, I hope you guys enjoy it too.

He studied her face, surprise showed all over her as she looked at Micheal, and then back at him. Micheal seemed kind of surprised that he called her 'bench girl' because; obviously he thought that he never had even seen this girl.

'You know each other? I don't believe this crap…the one time I find a real wholesome chick with real eyebrows and everything and you know her.' Micheal threw his hands up in defeat. 'You win, dude.'

Jess smirked and leaned into Rory. 'He's really sensitive deep down.'

'Deep, deep down.' said a short guy that was standing next to him. She guessed he was a friend of Micheal's too.

She turned to Micheal, 'We didn't date or anything…we barely met each other. I don't even know his name. So, he doesn't win. Okay?' She said nervously, looking at Micheal.

Micheal wiggled his eyebrows. 'Oooh..tension. Come on, Parker, Mr. Brown, chips are awaiting.' He put his arms around the two guys and they trotted off to another isle.

Jess smirked, and turned to the girl. 'I didn't think that our next meeting would be in a gas station.'

'I didn't even remember you at first…it was a year ago. I don't remember these things so easily as you do.' Rory stated clearly, walking as she talked meaninglessly looking at all of the junk food. 'Plus, you had all of the signs of a sexual predator--,'

'And now that you've met my friends you think differently?' He asked, smiling. Rory shrugged, and picked up a bag of Pringles. 'You know, their really not that bad. I'm sorry about the whole Micheal thing. He's just…immature.'

'Uh-huh.' She nodded unconvincingly. 'So, going to Fiji?'

'How long did you and Micheal talk? I should warn you, spending too much time with him can kind of ruin the part of your brain where you actually have the sense to not slaughter him in public.' He smiled.

She barely gave him a smile. 'He told me that you were going to Fiji…I'm in Chilton too.'

'Wow, so, book girl is going to Mexico?'

Rory looked at him wisely. 'I thought I was bench girl.' She glanced at his back pocket, 'Plus, you don't seem completely stupid. What are you reading?'

Jess took the book out of his pocket and handed it to her. It was a brand new copy of _Howl. _'It's really good, actually. I don't read much, but at least it's something…right?'

Then, she smiled. And he couldn't stop staring. 'It's a lot. I don't know why, but I think it makes me trust you a tad more. Howl is great. I've read it a thousand times.' She looked at him unconvinced, 'I don't believe you.'

'What?'

'I don't believe that you don't read a lot. This is a good book,' She gave him the book back, 'I don't think that someone that hasn't read much can pick this out.'

He shrugged, 'I have a natural gift for picking out books.'

'Uh-huh.' She smirked.

He could tell that he was definitely growing on her.

'Rory!' Louise appeared in front of them, giggling. 'We met these three guys, and one is really funny. Oh yeah, the Micheal one said that you two were probably making out here.' She frowned, 'Hey, Rory, your shirt is still buttoned up…why?'

Jess looked at Rory with a smirk on his face. 'Yeah, Rory, why?'

She rolled her eyes. 'Louise, this is Jess. Jess, Louise.'

'Paris is about to pepper spray Parker. So, we should get going.' Brownie ran down the isle to inform them.

'Who—you know what? I don't want to know.' Jess shook his head. 'Are you going to buy the bug repellant or are you ready too?' He asked Rory, who glanced at what was in her hand and blushed. 'We're ready.'

They all made their way to each of their cars. Rory was driving in the girl's car, and Jess was driving in the other. She was about to steer out of the gas station, when Jess beeped at her.

'Hey!' He yelled, 'Race!'

Rory raised an eyebrow at him, 'Excuse me?'

'Race to Fiji! Whoever wins gets a hundred bucks. Is that fair or not?'

He could see her eyes bugging out. 'I'm not going to race you guys to Mexico. We're taking the same roads, it'd be pointless!' She yelled back.

'Oh, come on, Rory. This will totally entertain us until we get there. And that's a long time from now. It'll be fun…' Louise begged, glancing over to Madeline for her to help her.

'Yes, Rory, please!' Micheal stuck his head out the window, and stuck out his bottom lip.

'If you get it past Paris, fine. But I don't think that's going to happen.' Rory said smartly, leaning back calmly. They all pointed their eyes at Paris, who was slurping her soda loudly.

'What do you say? Are you scared to loose?' Parker mocked.

Paris turned red with anger, and she put on this really competitive face on. 'Rory, you better not be a slow driver. I am not loosing to Parker.'

'Yay!' Louise and Madeline echoed.

Rory stared at Paris nervously. 'But, Paris, what if--,'

'You heard her! Let's go!' Jess yelled.

Parker smiled and said, 'I'll do the countdown! All cars ready…' Rory groaned, but nodded. 'On your marks, get set, Go!' And the only thing Rory heard before she took off, was two shots.

'Don't even wanna know where he got that gun…' She muttered under her breath.

-0-

9 hours later, the girls were somewhere in Tennessee and they were completely exhausted. Louise had already fallen asleep, leaning on the window. She had been like that for an hour now. Rory was still driving, and Paris was completely hyper on beating the guys. Personally, Rory wanted to take a break and stretch out her legs. Plus, her arms were completely sore. It was dark, and she could barely see a thing.

'Rory, your going at snail speed. Come on, don't you want to see the guys faces when we arrive much earlier than them? It'll be priceless.' Paris tried to keep Rory going.

She groaned and sighed, 'Paris, the men will be taking a sleep break. You don't really think that I'm not going to sleep tonight just because your obsessed with winning victory. I need my bed.' She whined.

'Sissy. We can't stop now, we're going to win!'

Rory's eyes were drooping and she could hardly keep her head up. 'No more soda for you. Now, I don't care what you say, I am going to stop at a motel so we can get some sleep. K?'

'Ugh, fine. But when the slugs win I'm going to blame you…'

Rory nodded tiredly, 'Uh-huh.'

She heard Madeline snoring, and knew that they were both asleep now. And they were making her want to crawl into bed even more. They arrived at a broken down motel, the big bright letters that said "Motel" were fading, but Rory didn't care. She was barely watching where she was going as she parked. But, when she got of the car, she was not pleased.

'You've got to be kidding me…' She muttered under her breath. The huge van of the boys was stationed right next to the place where they had parked. Paris had already ran inside to get the best room, so she just woke the girls and took her bag out of the trunk. 'Out of all the places, we had to pick this one' She kept on saying to herself as she entered the place.

To her displeasure the guys were standing in front of the reception talking to the man who was in charge of the rooms.

'Oh come on, you were only two seconds in front of us…we will get there first easily. You guys drive too fast and carelessly. You'll never get there alive.' Paris preached to them, mostly convincing herself.

'We'll see.' Parker smirked.

Rory slung her bag over her shoulder and approached the men. 'Hi. It's getting annoying how we keep on running into each other.' Jess nodded at her and then turned back to the man.

'That's two bedrooms, then. These girls are with us.' Jess stated, putting more than enough money on the table.

'Oh, you don't have to…' She gestured to the money.

He smirked, 'I'm not. Your paying for us when we get to Fiji. I do not do charity cases as you think I do.' Rory rolled her eyes. 'The extra cash is for anything we want or need.'

'it's only one night, for god's sake.' Paris mumbled.

Micheal shrugged, 'We're very needy.'

'Here you are.' The man handed the two keys over to Micheal.

Louise and Madeline ran into the motel, shrieking. 'Ah, my favorite girls.' Micheal smiled, and put his arms around them.

'Wow, I can not believe our luck.' Louise beamed.

'I'm exhausted. I think we should just head to bed now.' Rory proposed, taking the key of the room out of Micheal's hand. They nodded and she followed them out of the lobby. She guessed the guys did the same thing, they looked pretty tired also. She collapsed on one of the queen beds and sighed. The longest day of her life had just flashed before her eyes.

Paris dropped a bag next to Rory. 'Madeline snores…you sleep with her, and I sleep with Louise. It's only fair.'

'How is that only fair?'

'Because it is, alright?'

Rory, too tired to argue, simply nodded and crawled out of her bed.

When she finally got out of the bathroom, with her pajamas on, she could only see the lights off and Paris secure in her bed. She could see that neither Madeline or Louise had actually gone to bed. Rory sighed, groaning. They were too old for her to be babysitting them. She slumped out to the hallway, and knocked on the guys' door. The door soon opened. She would have not been so speechless if Jess had not shown himself completely shirtless and only with boxers on. She had to catch her breath for a second before she could speak.

'Louise and Madeline? Are they—Are they here?' Rory stuttered, crossing her arms over her chest uncomfortably. She swallowed hard, 'Their not in bed, and…so, I thought that here…they might be here.'

Jess looked amused. 'Their not here, no.'

'Oh. Well, I thought…'

'Parker and Micheal went out about five minutes ago, so, I think that maybe they went out with them. The keys to the van are missing.'

She sighed, 'As long as it's not the keys to Paris' car, it's fine.'

He nodded, leaning against the doorframe. 'Do you want to come in? Brown's sleeping, but he's usually a heavy sleeper.'

'Uh, I don't know. I mean, I left Paris in the room…our room and I'm really tired. So, I think that maybe it would be best if I could go and sleep. In my own bed, I mean.' Rory rambled.

He rubbed his eyes, nodding his head tiredly. 'Yeah, okay. I'll see you tomorrow when we beat your asses.'

Rory smiled. 'Over my dead body. If Paris gets coffee tomorrow, then your dead meat.'

She bid a small goodnight to Jess and then walked to her room. Maybe the whole looking for Madeline and Louise thing was worth it after all. Shirtless Jess, priceless.

A/N: Okay, I have something fun for all of you to do, we're going to take kind of a vote? I want everyone to tell me who you would rather win…the guys or the girls? And I'll choose who'll win by who wins the votes. I really couldn't decide, so, I'm having you guys choose. Lol. Okay, well, can't wait to see who wins.


	4. Cold Feet

Disclaimer: I don't own.

A/N: Here's the update that you all wanted. It's not a great chapter, so, sorry. Oh, and to all who want to know, the vote was a tie. Lol. That's why I had to kind of make it so everyone would be happy. Kind of. Anyways, enjoy the update.

---

Sleepily and unsteadily, they all got out of bed the next morning. Paris had already had all of the coffee that they ordered from room service, so Rory was simply driving with orange juice in her system, which was not a good thing for her. They drove all day, and they were most tired when they finally got into Mexico. But Rory couldn't help but keep her eyes wide open the whole time. It was just so beautiful, she wasn't even used to all of the nice weather, she lived in Connecticut, the dullest and worst weather. Paris was very excited indeed that the boys were nowhere in sight, Rory didn't dare mention that that could be a bad thing. But, since the guys were dead asleep when they left, they had a good chance.

When they finally got to the resort, Rory was in awe. It was a beautiful hotel, there was a huge pool in the middle and you could see the beach, not a far away distance. So many beautiful young people were walking around, and they were all having so much fun that it was hard to imagine that they would be anywhere else.

Rory could recognize a lot of the teenagers from Chilton, and a few of them even waved.

She saw a bar next to the pool, and many people were gathered around it. She guessed that there wasn't really an age limit, because there were a lot of people that were probably no more than sixteen or fifteen. But, this was not what drew her attention to the bar, but a similar back of a head did. But, it couldn't be…they couldn't…

Then, her eyes roamed to the pool and she saw Jess smirking at her. Paris was already running to the bar to yell at Micheal, so she approached Jess with a frown on her face.

'What the hell? There is no possible way—I mean, we left before…I—Oh my god." She shook her head angrily, 'Why couldn't you let us win for one thing?'

'I don't think the point was for us to let you win…the point was to laugh at your faces.'

'You're such a jerk! There's no way that you could have gotten here by car so fast.'

Jess smirked, 'Aha…you see, we didn't come here by car, naturally. We know this guy with a terrible accent, and he owed us a favor, so--,'

'What does that have anything to do with--,'

'Well, he has a pilot's license…and well, you can put it all together.'

Rory looked at him disgustedly. 'You bought yourself to Fiji?'

'It was the fast route.' Brownie chimed in.

'Now, the a hundred bucks please?'

Rory looked at him coldly. 'We're not giving you anything, you cheated. Wow, was I wrong about you guys, I thought that maybe somewhere inside you guys were decent…but, no, so not the case. You're just arrogant and selfish, you don't care about anything but money or yourselves.'

'You hardly know us.'

'I know enough.'

She walked off angrily. She didn't even feel like enjoying the nice atmosphere, it was like they had sucked all the happy out of her. She simply read in her room to cool herself off, even though Paris and all the girls were down in the pool. She didn't even know why she was so mad. A knock at the door got her nose out of her book.

She opened the door to find Micheal with an envelope in his hands.

'Micheal?'

'Hello lovely girl, I am here to deliver the post that master Jessifer has sent for you. Now, I am off to bang some _booty _as many proper English men would call it…' He said in a cheesy fake English accent.

'Wha—,'

'Goodriddens or some crap like that.' He waved and ran down the hall, leaving the envelope in front of the door.

She simply stared at the piece of paper that was lying at her feet. She bit her lip, looking down the hall to see if anyone was there. She quickly picked it up and closed the door quickly. She slid down the doorframe, and sat leaning against the door unsure of whether to open it or not. Of course, curiosity won over her thoughts.

She tore it open and smiled at Jess' words.

_Rory, _

_I know I am a complete pain in the rear end and I could probably never change that, but can't you think of the good times? Let's see…how about the time where you found the book in my pocket and you smiled. I like it when you're not completely pissed at me, it makes you shine. Okay, don't worry, this is me talking to you drunkly, so, if this letter is not up to a Romeo and Juliet potential I am sorry. Just wanted to let you know that we miss you and would like to see your tiny little figure in a bikini. Aren't I smoothe._

_P.S. I have officially given myself the 'Book boy' title. So, your bench girl and I'm book boy. Oh come on, you can take a bunch of mocking material out of that…_

_Maybe not completely sincerely,_

_Book Boy._

God, she would be such a sucker if she fell for that. Then she sighed, it was night…what were they still doing in a pool? She shook her head at herself and ran to the bathroom.

When she walked out of the room, with a bathing suit on, she felt the most exposed she had in her life. The guys were cheering down in the water when they saw her come down the stairs, the girls had a drink in their hands, and they were talking to each other. Surprisingly, a lot of people were still out there. Even though it was good into the night. She rashly jumped into the pool with a shriek. Everyone gathered around her to talk to her about what she had missed, everyone but Jess who was sitting in the corner of the pool smirking. Her eyes connected to his' and after that she was barely giving anyone else any attention.

-0-

The next morning, Rory found herself with a giant headache. Her eyes fluttered open, and the first thing she saw was her hand gripping a large vodka bottle. Her reflexes immediately let it fall, which wasn't a big deal because the floor was carpet, and it didn't break or make any noise. Her hair was all over her face, so she pushed it out of the way. She found the top part of her bikini still in place, but it was unhooked, and she didn't even want to think about the bottom part. She was entangled in white sheets, and her neck hurt from the position she was in.

She lifted her head from the uncomfortable place, wincing in pain and rubbed the place in her neck that hurt. 'Ouch.' Then, taking her mind of her hurt spot, she looked around the room. It was a hotel room, very similar to her's, but not at all the same. There was a bunch of guys' clothes all over the place. A strange guy walked out of the bathroom, with a towel wrapped around his waist, she raised an eyebrow at him, since she had never seen him in his life.

'Mornin.'

'Um, good morning, who are you?' She blinked, nervously.

The guy chuckled. 'Thought you wouldn't remember…you were pretty drunk last night. You kept on saying that I was pretty.' He was about slip the towel off, when Rory covered her eyes and shrieked.

'Excuse me? But, I'm still right here…and sure, I might have seen some of, uhm, that last night but I can't really remember any of that today. So, would you mind keeping the teeny tiny towel on?'

He shook his head in amusement, 'Fine.'

Rory peeked out from her hand and saw that he still had the towel on, she let out a sigh of relief. 'Um, okay, I feel really stupid asking this...but, did we—I mean, we didn't...?'

'No.' The guy smirked, 'We didn't. Although we did get well through 3rd base.'

Rory felt herself blushing fiercely. She bit her lip, 'And why didn't we…?'

'Well, I didn't actually want to take advantage of you…you seemed pretty pure. You kinda resembled Virgin Mary, that kind of freaked me out.'

Rory frowned, 'So, you just left me lying here?'

'Well, I was going to bring you back out to the pool, but you fell asleep, plus none of your friends were there when I went out. You know what, I went through a lot of trouble without even getting a good lay. Consider yourself lucky.'

She rolled her eyes and sighed. 'So, we're at least in the same hotel?'

'Yeah.'

'Okay, well, do you have anything that I could change into? I don't really want to go back into my room looking like a tornado blew me away.'

He shrugged, 'Take whatever you need. Now, if you will please close your eyes, or not, let me get changed.'

Rory nodded, biting her lip, and closed her eyes tightly. 'So, what's your name, anyways?'

-0-

Nobody was at her room when Rory got there, so, she changed quickly and walked around the hotel trying to find everyone. She saw a sign in a hall that said that there was a restaurant down the stairs, so, she guessed that they might be there. She walked into the breakfast place and she saw them all at one table. Her stomach churned when she saw them all smirking at her, she didn't want them to know anything about her night. She felt a blush creep up her neck.

Rory bit her lip, and sat quickly and quietly next to Brownie, and in front of Jess.

'Wow, I never actually thought that you would be the first of us to score…' Paris shook her head, 'Not that I'm going to score, because I am in love with Jamie, and he trusted me to come here.'

Rory fiddled with her thumbs nervously. 'I didn't score, Paris.'

'Oh, you didn't? Can't he…?' Louise frowned.

She rolled her eyes, 'Honestly, Louise. We didn't…because he was a good guy and he didn't want to take advantage of me. I think that's something to consider, don't you?'

Parker smirked, 'Yeah, I consider that he's an embarrassment to man kind if he didn't get his hands on you, I mean, you are a fine piece of work.'

'How far did you get anyway?' Madeline asked interestedly.

Rory's blush came back and she looked down. "Uhm, apparently, third base.'

'Apparently?' Jess spoke for the first time, trying to act not interested by keeping to his book.

'I really don't want to talk about this…now, what do we have planned for today?'

Micheal took a flask out of his pocket and took a swing from it, 'Topless beach.'

Madeline smiled. 'We need to get tanned, Rory, it was the first place that came to our mind the second that we got here. I mean, the boys were really nice about it too, they totally offered to come along. And that's something because it's full of women, they won't even have any guys to hang out with.'

Rory shook her head at Madeline's cluelessness and shot a smirking Jess a look. 'I think I'm just gonna go with my top on.'

'Now, don't spoil our fun.' Micheal said sternly.

She sighed, 'We'll see.'

'Oh my god, it's already twelve. If we don't hurry up, then, we'll never get good spots at the beach.' Louise squeaked, hurting Rory's ears. Louise and Madeline were the first to get up and grab their purses, 'Escorts, please escort us to the beach.' She smiled, thinking she had just made a very smart comment. Parker and Micheal stood up and each put an arm around a girl, but they were quickly followed by Paris and Brownie. Which, only left Jess and Rory. Jess quickly slammed his book closed and stood up.

'Shall we?' He stuck out an arm.

Rory smiled, biting her lip, and then hastily stood up and grabbed his arm. 'Just so you know, there is no way that you'll be able to sweet talk me into taking my top off...'

'Oh, how I love it when a girl says that.' Jess smirked, shaking his head.

'So, what? Are you my escort now?" She asked, smiling at the thought. Jess shrugged, and chuckled. 'So, um, did you notice when that guy took me up to his hotel room?" Rory said suddenly, making him raise an eyebrow at her.

He shrugged once again. 'It's not like I could have stopped you.'

'Of course you could have. You were the reason that I went down there.'

'You were downright hitting on him, it didn't seem like you wanted to have a nice conversation with me.'

'How do you know it was the conversation I was looking for?" She smirked playfully. 'Anyways, I don't usually drink…'

'You seemed to have a hang of it, down there, I mean.'

'Well, I guess with everything I needed a drink once in a while.'

He didn't even ask her what everything was, he just walked by her and nodded. But, even with everything, when he looked at her, it seemed like she really wanted him to ask. But, for some reason, unknown completely to her, he didn't even ask around the thing.

She frowned, 'So, do you think I should go topless in the beach?'

'Your decision.'

She sighed impatiently. Was she actually flirting with him and he wasn't flirting back? Did she actually want him to flirt back? She bit her lip, 'I'm sorry, what's happening here?...'

'Huh? What?'

Rory looked at him strangely, but quickly decided that he was completely oblivious to the fact that she was flirting with him. Or maybe he wasn't, he just didn't care. They both weren't great options. She squinted at him, 'Um, Jess, is it okay if I stay here instead of go to the beach? Because I'm just really tired, and well, you know.'

'Are you sure? The guys will be really disappointed..'

What about you? Will you be disappointed? She found herself thinking. She shook her head, 'I'm sure. I'm going to go to sleep and then maybe feast on the snack bar.'

Jess nodded, 'O-okay. But, Rory, before you go…'

She looked back at him, giving him a questioning look.

'Do you want to come with us to a night club that we're all going to tonight?'

'With you?'

'Sure, with me.'

Rory's face lighted up at the thought. She gave him an excited smile, 'We'll all meet you downstairs at nine?'

'I'll tell the girls that you had cold feet about the beach.' Jess nodded.

She nodded, slowly, and then turned on her heel, walking slowly, not being able to contain her smile.

--

A/N: Okay, I know it was OOC for Rory to go home with that guy and get drunk, but I just think that Rory has to be different for this story, not completely different, but normal. Because, come on. But I'm excited for the next chapter. There will definitely be A LOT of Literatiness. So, it's mainly gonna be Rory/Jess stuff.

**Review please!**


	5. The Laws of Attraction

When the Stars Go Blue

Ch. 5

Rory tapped her foot very impatiently while she stared at the cute bartender.

"Why's your boyfriend flirting with another woman?"

She narrowed her eyes on the man, frowning. "One: He's not my boyfriend, and Two: He's not flirting."

"He sure is staring at her breasts, though." The man commented, himself staring at her rack. "Can't blame him. If a woman like _that _was throwing herself at me, I would jump her in public. What do you mean he's not your boyfriend?"

"Just because he came into the pub with me at hand doesn't mean that he can go and flirt with someone else, apparently." She muttered, eyeing Jess across the room. She sighed, and took a gulp of her strong drink.

The man smirked. "You're hot, though. Why would he go after her?"

Rory smiled at him. "You're sweet, Pete. But, I would go more for a compliment like, 'You have beautiful eyes' or something. But, I guess I'm asking too much."

Pete neared his face to her's and looked at her, as if examining her eyes. "They are nice."

Rory chuckled. "Another Cosmo."

He nodded, and went to the back to go make her the drink.

Then, Louise went giggling and jumping over to Rory, with a guy holding her from behind. "Rory! My friend!" She then hugged her tightly, drunk. She could smell her breath from a mile away. "This is Drake…he's so hot, isn't he?"

Rory widened her eyes at her and smiled. "Sure."

"Well, I just talked to Madeline and she seemed to be going home with _her _guy. So, I guess I am too. Right, Drakie?" The guy smirked and nodded. Rory eyed the man nervously.

She leaned towards Louise, "How old is he?"

"No, he's mine!" She shrieked, "He already said he was going home with me. I just wanted to let you know. So, yeah, 'bye!" She hiccupped, and walked away, dancing, with her victim.

She sighed, and turned back to Pete, who now was flirting with a tall brunette that was sitting a couple seats down from her. But, she found her Cosmopolitan right in front of her, and for that she was grateful. She drank it down slowly, and turned to find Jess behind her. "Oh."

"Drinking, I see? I thought you didn't do that much."

Rory frowned, "God, you scared the _crap _out of me!"

"Oh, I see that the alcohol is starting to affect you?"

She shook her head, but she was admitting to herself that she was actually a little drunk in her mind. "I don't see why you would care. I see you like them nice and drunk…and chesty."

Jess shook his head at himself. "Nicole is an old school friend."

She giggled. "You have old school friends? You're not that old, Jessie. You've barely had a high school career. What? You met her when she was still flat, and that was probably only when she was three years old."

"Jessie?" He scoffed.

"It's better than freaking book boy."

Jess sighed, sitting down next to her. "How much have you drunk?"

"Not that much," She denied, "just a couple of drinks. Pete doesn't like a nice girl, with _nice eyes _to get drunk like I would like to right now. Pete's a nice guy, you know."

"You're on a first name basis with the bartender, that's a bad sign."

Rory rolled her eyes, taking a sip. "You were supposed to be my date."

"I know, I am. But, Nicole just took me and wouldn't stop talking. She has a squeaky voice. It's like talking to a mouse for half an hour. I wasn't having a good time, if that makes you feel better."

Rory looked at him from the side of her eye. "Slightly."

"Good. Now, can you look at me in the right way and then we can start on our real date?"

"You're such a jerk, you know. You can't just do that."

He smirked slightly. "What?"

"Charm yourself into my heart." She mumbled, "And yes, it worked. So, come on, let's dance."

Jess stepped back. "Whoa there. I don't dance."

"You have to."

"I don't actually have to do anything. Although, there is a beach in front of us. We could go walk."

"Are you trying to seduce me?" She asked, smirking.

Jess shrugged, "You're not looking for conversation, apparently."

Rory smiled, hopping off the stool. She took Jess' hands, and they both walked out of the pub together. Once they stepped outside, all they could hear was a couple making out against the wall beside them, and the sound of the waves crashing together. The powerful smell of the salty sea hit their noses, as they crossed the little sidewalk-sand thing that the owner of the restaurant/pub had created leading to the beach.

Rory hopped on one foot, taking off her heels, and carrying them in her hands. "I'll be able to feel the sand between my toes. It's the best feeling in the world. Take off those heavy shoes and join me."

Jess looked at her, to see if she was serious, and when she nodded, he sat down in an abandoned and sandy chair, and took off his black shoes. When he finally removed his socks, he sighed. "What do I do with them?"

Rory smiled evilly. "Throw them." She then, threw them out into the open, where they landed with a soft thud.

"Are you insane? What if someone takes them? We'll never be able to get them back."

She frowned. "Okay, I don't like the logical you. Now, get a flask and join me in my happy drunkery."

Jess raised his brows at this, but then lunged the shoes far away from there. Then, surprising Rory, he took out a flask from his pocket. Taking a swig from it, he cringed. "What the hell does Parker drink?"

"I don't know. But, I'm guessing that it's strong." She smiled at him, taking his hand. "Walk." They moved farther into the beach, walking beside the beautiful waves and the scenery, enjoying the company. "So, tell me something about yourself."

"Like…?"

She smirked. "What's your last name?"

"Jess Mariano. Nice to meet you." He reached out to shake her hand, which she, smiling, accepted. "And you are..?"

"Rory Gilmore." Rory chuckled. "I wonder if we're going to be left stranded on this beach. I'm sure everyone's going home with someone. And that means that someone's bound to take one of our car's."

"It wouldn't be that bad."

"What?"

"Being stranded on a beach with you."

Rory narrowed her eyes on his'. "Take it slow, buddy. I think I liked the cocky Jess better."

"Really? I thought that all girls liked the whole romantic, 'Aww, your cute' thing."

She smiled. "I'm not most girls."

He blinked, looking out into the beach. "Now, tell me something about you."

"Well, when I was little, I had this bizarre dream. You know, going out into a deserted island and just sit there and read. And that would be it, sit there in the sand and read the whole day. That would be my great fantasy. Because, well, let's just say that my house was a bit noisy to even read one sentence."

Jess nodded, looking back at her. "So, did you bring a book?"

"Strangely, yes. But, now that I have my fantasy right here in front of me, it's like I've grown up. And, maybe it was a good thing to be like that when you're young and hopeless. But, now, I guess I don't want to read on a beach."

He raised an eyebrow, "That doesn't make sense at all."

'Maybe I'm not making sense to myself right now.' She looked down.

Jess looked at the back of her neck that was exposed when she turned her head to look at the ocean. There were small dimples laying at the crook of her neck, and he couldn't help but want to loose himself there. 'I'd want to read in the beach right now. I understand the fantasy.'

Rory met his gaze again. 'I'm glad.'

Then, without even discussing it, they found themselves sitting on the beach, watching the waves crash into the beach noisily. Jess was laying on the sand, not caring if his hair even got a tiny bit of dirt into his hair, while he took swigs of his fun flask every now and then. Rory, however, was sitting, and watching everything around her, while Jess was watching her.

'I love it here.' She smiled, turning her head just to see his face as he watched the beach. He kept a straight face, but handed her the flask. 'No…thanks. I don't think I even should have drunk in the pub, and now that I'm a little non-drunker, than I can kind of think straight.'

He took a gulp of the flask. 'I hate thinking.'

'You hate thinking?'

'Yup. It's horrible, I mean, it just causes way too many problems.'

'I think thinking does the opposite.'

Jess shrugged. "No, because every time you think, someone else gets hurt when you weren't intending on it on the first place. Everyone always has the best intentions, but it never happens. Thinking is overrated."

"Someone had a bad childhood."

"You have no idea."

Rory chuckled, "I might have some."

They sat in silence for longer than Rory could bear to count in her head until he spoke, after taking a long drink out of his 'fun flask.'

"Do you want to go in?"

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Where?"

"The sea. Do you want to go into the beach?"

She looked around them, as if he was now the one that was crazy. She then looked out at the sea and sighed. She could barely see the black sky above her head, except for a few stars, how was she supposed to see where she was swimming? "Um, well, it's kind of dark. And…I have no bathing suit, you have no bathing suit."

"I know that."

"You're drunk. Did you know that?"

He smirked, "I'm not being smart. I just…please."

"Please?"

"Hey, I asked nicely."

"Jess, I'm not insane."

He rolled his eyes, "Says the lady who threw her shoes out into the open because she wanted to feel sand between her toes."

"I was drunk." She said reasonably.

"I'm drunk."

Rory sighed. "I'm not going into the beach with no clothes out into the night."

"Skinny dipping, then."

"Is this some crazy attempt to get me naked?"

Jess looked out into the open sea, unbuttoning his shirt while he did it. "I'm going in."

"Can you even swim?" She asked, looking at him as if he was crazy.

"I think so. Now, coming or not?"

Rory smiled at him. The beautiful smile that he hadn't seen much before. He just wanted to kiss her right there and then, which wasn't such a great place, because he was currently half naked and they were stranded on a beach. Or maybe it was the opposite…

While he was pondering this, he was subconsciously leaning in.

"Are you mental!" She yelled at him, her voice squeaking with fury. "Seriously. You are the most wishy-washy, most undecided, horny idiot that I have ever met."

Jess frowned.

"What do you think you were doing?" She huffed.

"Well, I could see what I wasn't doing."

Rory gave him the evil eye as he slipped off his pants, revealing green silky boxers underneath. Her breath stopped for a second, but then reality came back to her when he started slipping the actual boxers off. She hastily covered her eyes. "Okay, _now _you've gone mental. What are you doing?"

All she heard after that was a huge splash. She opened her eyes, assuming it was safe to look. She saw a shadowy figure lurking in the waters, screaming out in the coldness.

"Are you alright?" She yelled, concerned.

"Come on! The water's great!"

"Sure, and that was why you were screaming out in coldness when your crotch got iced."

She got no answer in return, and then saw no figure floating in the waters. She immediately went into a panic. "Jess! Jess?" She stood up from her resting place, and went towards the sea. "Jess! Come on, this isn't funny." Maybe it was the total anxiety or the horrible things that could be happening to him in that moment that made her remove all of her clothes and jump into the probably icy water.

When she got into the water, she went underwater, searching everywhere she could. She practically jumped into the air when she felt two hands snake around her waste. She screamed and turned to see Jess smirking at her, and leaning in once again.

It was probably because of all the non-characteristic Rory swearing that Jess didn't make it through the kiss without getting bruised. "You are such an idiot! Why would you even do such a thing? Trust me, I have met a lot of guys in my life but nobody has ever been such a disaster waiting to happen."

Jess rubbed his cheek from getting smacked. "You don't like getting kissed, do you?"

"It's not that! You tricked me into going skinny-dipping. You are probably being perverted and staring at me under water like a 13-year-old boy with hormones. You are not a kid, Jess. I'm sure you've seen loads of girls naked, fictional or non-fictional."

Jess narrowed his eyes at her. "Huh."

He felt as if her eyes were about to pop out. "Huh! Huh? That's what you say after you've completely humiliated me. Huh!"

"There's no one around, and it's too dark to see you naked. Huh is the correct answer here."

Rory crossed her arms around her chest. "You have problems."

"I know. My mom didn't breast feed me when I was a baby, I am now completely scarred and am obsessed with boobs ever since. What can I do?" Jess said sarcastically, which just earned him another smack. "I'm sorry, but why do you keep on smacking me?"

She huffed, "You deserve it."

They stood in silence, wet and mad. At least Rory was. She would peep at him from the corner of her eye every once in a while, to see if he was looking sorry, but he was just lounging around.

"Can we get out now?" She asked, shivering. "Sure, Fiji beaches might be okay in the day time, but I think that we're going to go all Jack and Rose on people. Except instead of drowning heroically, I'll murder you. Does that sound good?"

Jess smirked, "I'm not stopping you from getting out."

She sighed, finally letting her hands down from covering her chest, but sunk deeper into the beach so that he couldn't see anything. "What's stopping you from leaving?" He asked smartly.

She groaned. "I don't know. I don't know why I haven't just walked out of the beach."

"I think you're waiting for something to happen."

"Of course not. I hate you right now."

"Uh-huh."

"Stop being cocky, it's annoying." She muttered.

"I thought it was charming."

"If that's your best quality, I don't even want to see your bad ones…"

He sighed. "Fine, you want to call it truths?" He asked, pleading with his chocolate brown eyes that she had noticed all night. "I'm not going to plead, but I will try to be civil."

She let out a long sigh also, and moved a little closer. "Me too."

"Now, come on, you can't tell me your not enjoying the beach?"

She looked around at the beach and saw no waves around them anymore, it was kind of creepy. "I don't know. All the silence is getting me weirded out."

"I think it's a good change. I live in a house where there's fighting and crap being thrown around, maybe it's a good change."

"This is what you call a good change?"

"Maybe your house's not that bad because, well, you're obviously the princess in the picture, but everyone else's lives around you are not so fabulous."

Rory frowned, "You know nothing about my life. My parents aren't even together, my sister's perfect, and I don't even know about my brother. I'm not sure I even get noticed for anything unless I screw up. My mom's a psychopath."

"At least your parents are divorced."

"And how is that better?"

"Just trust me on this one," He looked at her, and he thought for a minute that he saw a little bit of understanding in her eyes. "How did we both go to Chilton and never meet?"

Rory smiled. "I don't know. We don't exactly befriend the same kind of people. Plus, we're a year apart. Sometimes I think that, well, we're so different it was amazing that we even met each other in this lifetime."

"Maybe." He said simply, nodding.

She moved closer to him, not disconnecting their gaze. It was not this huge romance, or love at first site. It was simple lust. Not even lust, attraction, or maybe what they were experiencing at that moment. Understanding. She stopped him from leaning in to kiss her again, frowning upon him.

He frowned, "What are you doing?"

She smiled, taking her salty wet hair out of the way, so, her blue eyes were clearly visible. "You've tried to kiss me a billion times tonight, you know. And I don't think it's good for your ego…even though it's rather inflated already."

"Not inflated, I don't even have an ego."

Rory rolled her eyes. "Sure. Anyways…" She brought up her finger to his lips.

"What are you doing?"

"Showing you what _being kissed _is like. Really being kissed. Nothing more than something innocent, the girl kisses the boy. Not because they want to get sex out of it, or because of the laws of attraction. But, just because they want to. And because there's a crush. A cute crush."

She placed her hand on his cheek and placed her lips on his', making him feel like it was impossible to move. Before he could deepen it, she moved away.

Rory blinked. "And now, Jess, I am going to remove myself from the water and call a taxi."

He tried to reach out to her, but she slyly pulled away.

"Just a crush, remember."

He smirked. "Huh."


	6. A New Year's Resolution

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the GREAT plotline. lol.

A/N: Hey there guys. I'm updating, yay. lol. Anyways, I thought that since I had this chapter already done I could just update so you guys could have a chapter to enjoy on this hot summer day. (at least where I am.) By the way, I'm sorry for a lot of mistakes I made in the last chapter, it was kind of rushed, and I didn't even put an author's note or anything. I was updating in a hurry. Hope you enjoy this chapter!

--

7 months later...

"Rory, get a move on! I'm losing my sense of humor and I don't want to be humorless of a two-hour trip to New York just to see a freaking ball drop. I have to be hilarious." Lorelai yelled through the house, while she gently applied her make up in her room.

Rory walked into the room in a huff. "There. Happy? I am ready."

She had silver earrings that hung down; her hair was straight and perfect, while she wore a little black dress that hugged her curves just in the right places. She blushed, "What do you think?"

Lorelai made a tisk-tisk sound with her voice. "You look great. But, we really need to get going." She said impatiently, biting her lip. Rory frowned at her mother and grabbed a purse in her mother's closet. "You want to take that one?"

Rory nodded. "I like it. Plus, it fits my book in there."

"Your book? Why the hell are you going to bring a book to a New Years Eve party?"

She shrugged, "I get bored."

"Luke is picking us up in two minutes."

"Who's Luke again?"

"Luke Danes. He has a small diner here in town. I don't know why we've never been there; I guess we've just been busy since we moved here. But, he's nice."

"Dating nice?"

Lorelai gave her the evil eye. "He's good. Now, his sister's name is Liz. So, you don't totally forget it when you thank her for the lovely party."

"Liz. I got it."

_Beep._

Rory frowned at her mother and trudged down the stairs. She saw a tall man with a nice shirt, standing there awkwardly with his hands in his black pant pockets. Rory smiled, and walked over to him, beaming. "Hi. I'm Rory Gilmore. Lorelai's daughter."

"Rory? Oh, hi. I've seen you, um, around. You always had the book."

She nodded. "Yeah. And I saw your diner. My mom is crazy about diners but is just really busy. So¼I guess we'll be going over to your place to eat from now on."

He gave her a reassuring smile. "You look nice. Do you have a date?"

She looked down. "My boyfriend is doing something."

"Okay."

Lorelai, then, walked out with her wine colored dress, looking radiant. Rory watched them flirt for a while, but they all ended up sitting in the car, waiting to get to New York. Rory looked out the window, feeling bored. It was already seven something and the party would start at eight. Her mother had told her five minutes ago that they would be there in twenty minutes. Her dress was beginning to feel uncomfortable, and she suddenly felt very self-conscious.

When Luke finally announced that they were there, Rory smiled excitedly. She fixed her hair, because she had been leaning on the window for so long, and then looked outside at the beautiful building. It was lit up with beautiful. It looked so alive as people were pouring into the very decorated apartment building. She picked up her jacket and wrapped it around her body tightly. When she walked out of the car, the cold New York air hit her in the face sharply.

"Which apartment is it?" She asked into the air.

Luke frowned. "The one with the overly decorated doorway."

Rory smirked, "That narrows it down a whole lot." She walked into the building, smiling at the doorman. She walked up the stairs behind Lorelai and Luke, who were hand in hand. She wished that she had brought someone. That way she wouldn't look young and stupid without a date. Nobody would take her seriously then. She sighed, and turned to the apartment that was highly over-decorated where a couple was making outside of the door.

When they entered the huge apartment, a blonde woman in a long dress with a slightly big belly (she guessed she was pregnant) came up to them immediately and hugged Luke tightly.

"My big brother! I am so glad you all came. How are you, my darling?"

Luke wiped the smudged lipstick off his cheek. "I'm fine, Liz." He turned to Lorelai and Rory. "This is Lorelai, and this is her daughter."

Liz squealed. "I am so glad that you could make it. I'm Liz Mariano."

Where had Rory heard that name before? She simply smiled, "Hi."

"I'm Lorelai Gilmore."

Her mother immediately jumped into the conversation, showing her that she should walk away from the conversation. She looked around the party, and saw everyone chatting in their own little gossip circles. It was one of _those_ parties. The rich snobby ones where nobody talked to anybody who they hadn't come with. She didn't recognize anyone in this party, so all that she could do was walk around.

--

"Jimmy, leave me alone." Jess mumbled, reaching for his drink.

His father frowned at him, giving him a stern look. "Jess, there is no way that you can keep doing this. You disappeared with the maid, for god's sake! You're mother couldn't get out of bed for weeks¼"

"That part was clear."

"Shut up. You have no right to talk about your mother this way, she is under enough stress with the baby."

Jess shot him a frustrated look. "My mother is under stress with the baby? My mother was with her guy of the day when I 'sneaked out.'"

"This is not the time." Jimmy looked around, adjusting his tie.

Jess shook his head. "It never is the time. When you're on your freaking business trips, it's not the time, when my mother is off fucking the cable guy; it's not the time. And now, that I feel like doing stuff on my own time, it's definitely not the time. I don't get why you even care about this anyway."

"Oh, it would be the best day of your life if I didn't care. Don't you think things like this get around? Well, it does. And I don't think a good for nothing, loser that plans to do nothing with his life should ruin our family name. So, yes, you can bet your ass we're going to discuss this! It may not be right now, but it will happen."

With a turn on his heel, he walked away from Jess, leaving a few people staring at his direction.

Jess sighed, taking a sip of his alcohol-free drink. Liz had insisted that he had to be straight-edged for that night. He wished so badly that he could be holding the strongest drink in the world. He looked around, not finding anywhere that he could hide. He walked down the hallway aimlessly, away from all the noise.

"_Jordan. Please. It's not—No. I did not lie to you. Just because you seem to be so selfish that you couldn't even seem to come to a New Year's Eve party tonight, it does not mean that I am lying to you 24/7."_

He heard a girl's voice pleading in the bathroom. He could tell that she was crying.

"_We can talk about this. You don't have to do this¼"_

He wrinkled his brow and walked into the coed bathroom. The sound was coming from one of the stalls, but he couldn't tell where. He looked at himself in the mirror, silently waiting for someone to escape out of the bathrooms. Then, he saw her.

Rory walked out of the stall, rubbing her blotchy tear-stained eyes. "I'm sorry, I didn't know that anyone was in here." She muttered, hiccupping.

Jess raised an eyebrow as he observed her from the mirror. "Rory?"

She widened her eyes to look at the guy that was standing in front of her. "Jess. Wow. This could not be more embarrassing." She sniffled, "Hi."

"I heard you from out in the hallway¼and you—you sounded pretty upset."

"When did you start caring?" She snapped.

Jess raised an eyebrow at her, and she looked down.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap or anything. I just broke up with my boyfriend¼"

He nodded. "Jordan?"

"He goes to Chilton. He's nice and smart. Sure, he can be jerky but I really liked him." She sighed, not meeting his gaze. "Um, anyways, what are you doing here?"

"Well, it's my mom's party, so I was kind of made to come."

"Your mom?" Rory repeated. "Liz is your mom?"

Jess nodded, sitting down on one of the fancy chairs that were sitting mysteriously in the even fancier bathroom. "The one and only. And how do you know Liz?"

"She's Luke's sister. My mom is dating Luke."

"Luke¼uh, that kind of rings a bell. An uncle?"

Rory smiled for the first time. "Yeah. He's a nice guy."

"I'm glad that someone in the family has that ability."

She looked down at her feet and hiccupped once more. She looked at her cellphone, there was nothing flashing in the screen. "He's not going to call, is he?"

Jess looked down at her, frowning. "Don't worry about it. It's funny, it's the second time we've run into each other randomly, I think it would've had some of effect on us by now."

She raised an eyebrow at him, "Jess, what are you doing?"

"You know what, you need to lighten up. If you keep on going around with that sad face painted on, then you're going to get bitter."

Rory rolled her eyes. "I think I'm already bitter."

"What a shame. I hate to waste a perfectly good night." He stood up, smirking. He gave her one last look before walking out of the bathroom, thinking to himself. Rory was about to go after him, when she remembered what happened at the beach. Was he trying to get that night back? She sighed, and just sat.

--

Subconsciously, Jess was waiting all night for Rory to look for him. He stayed by the bar, drinking (except not the way he would like to be drinking) and looking around at everyone.

"Only half an hour until the ball drops!" He heard someone yell, while the others agreed.

He shook his head at himself, and grabbed his coat. He made sure that no one was looking, and sneaked out of the apartment without anyone noticing. It was not until he was half way down the stairs, that he noticed someone shadowing him. When he turned to see who it was, he was brought face to face with Rory.

"What are you doing?" She crossed her arms over her chest, giving him an un-approving frown.

Jess started buttoning up his jacket. "I'm sneaking out."

"Of?"

"The party, of course."

Rory rolled her eyes. "No, you aren't. You're mom and dad are now looking for you because they saw you bump into Mrs. Mayer on your way out. You're not as smart as you think."

"They can't stop me."

Now, her eyes looked a little more sympathetic. "Jess, come on. What are you going to do out there alone in New York City, on New Years Eve?"

"It'd be better to spend New Years with myself than with these people."

Rory looked at him, and then looked back at the apartment up the stairs. She weighed her options, and sighed. "Hold on. Let me get my coat. You're not going out there alone." She dashed up the stairs and grabbed her coat fast; just to make sure that Jess would still be there when she got back down the stairs. There he stood, leaning against the railing wearing that smug smirk on his face.

"Where are we going?" She asked, as they exited the building.

Jess hunched up his shoulders, shivering. "I don't know. We'll just walk."

"So..." Rory tried to make conversation. "What are you up to these days?"

"I started college this year."

"Really? I wouldn't have pictured you as college bound."

Jess rolled his eyes. "Harvard bound."

She looked very impressed in that moment, smiling broadly. "Harvard, wow. That's so...wow. Tell me, do you like it?"

"I have to work my ass off to impress the Dean, and so that my parents are satisfied. But, other than that, everything else is okay." He let out a stressed sigh. "I didn't want to go there in the first place...but, their paying for college, and that's where I had to go."

Rory gave him a sad look. "Where would you rather be?"

"Anywhere else."

"College?"

He shrugged, looking around at their surrounding. "Maybe. I'd just want to do what _I _would want to do. Not what my parents want me to do. It's not as bad as it sounds, though."

Rory nodded, not sure what to say. "I wouldn't mind being Harvard bound. Although, I do have senior year to worry about to even be thinking about college. It's so stressful, you know? I mean, this is the year that decides your whole future."

"Yeah, I wouldn't know about that." He made a sharp turn, making Rory confused for a second. She followed him close behind as he walked quickly, but still slow enough to make sure he got to enjoy the city.

"Does your mom live here?"

He shook her head. "Her DAR friends are not here, she wouldn't dare."

"Jess, why are you so angry with her? I mean, she seems happy. She's having a baby, and your going to be a big brother. That's going to be the best experience in the world. Trust me."

He stopped and turned to look at her and sighed. "Rory, you wouldn't want to get into any of this. So, I would suggest to keep yourself out of it." He said this coldly, of course, not meaning to.

"Anyways...where would you like to go?"

"Go?" She asked, surprised.

"Well, we are going somewhere, right?"

Rory pondered this for a moment, and let her eyes roam all over the street. Once she spotted a store that had exactly what she wanted, she took him by the arm and dragged him there. She smiled, "Tada!"

"And what is this supposed to be?"

Rory rolled her eyes, and pointed to the clear window that had a TV turned on, showing people celebrating. "What? Are you completely blind? This is where their showing the New Years Eve special. We can watch the ball drop."

"Through a window, standing up in the middle of the street?"

She frowned. "Hey, I didn't know you were so picky. And to answer the question, yes."

"Won't we get cold just standing here?"

"Would you rather go back?" She crossed her arms over her chest, "No, I didn't think so. And, there is no way that I'm not going to watch the ball drop. Plus, we have to make a wish."

"I don't think you make a wish when the ball drops..."

"Well, I've been doing it since I was born, so, if God doesn't get it by now, then I'm screwed."

Jess smirked at her. "How about this? We'll call it a creative resolution."

She nodded, smiling. "A New Year's Wish. A.K.A. resolution."

Suddenly, a lot of noise started sounding, in the apartment buildings, inside the store, and even in the tiny television that they were watching. A man appeared on the screen talking about how there was only one more minute until the New Year. They looked at each other, both secretly smiling.

"_Here we are in New York City, where everyone is going crazy for the New Year. Ponder this, what is your New Year's Resolution? We all wish you a happy New Year, and we hope to see you next year. Same time, same place."_

The man on the screen gave a small wave, and then the camera pointed at a mob of people screaming and jumping up and down.

"Here we go." Jess mumbled, looking at his feet.

_10._

_9._

_8._

_7._

_6._

_5._

_4._

_3._

_2._

_1._

Fireworks went up in the sky, and everyone had a person to kiss on the screen. Rory and Jess looked at each other, not smiling, but definitely not frowning. She moved forward, and he did a rash thing and scooped her up in his arms, giving her a long kiss on the lips.

_I will be a better person._

_I'll love._

In their heads, everything was exploding with emotions as they held their perfect kiss in place. When they finally ran out of breath, they remained in each other's arms, smiling at each other. She let out a happy breath, hot air coming out of her mouth.

They soon pulled away, out of trance, the ceremony had ended, but fireworks were still up in the air.

"So..." She started to work up the courage to speak, but then stopped.

"Um, we better head back. Liz's probably gonna go all mental on people."

Rory gave him a smile. "So, what was your wish?"

--

A/N: Okay, I'm trying to kind of ease into the relationship right now. You know, you can't have it too rushed. Plus, the way Jess is, and combined with Rory…it's going to be hard to make a relationship out of it. Don't you think? Anyways, sorry that I skipped a few months for this chapter, but I just needed for it to be a long time since they had seen each other. Plus, it makes it more fun. p

Review plz!


	7. Surprise, Surprise

A/N: Hope you enjoy the chapter…

--

Rory tapped her pen against her desk impatiently, sighing. She looked at the small paper in front of her. How could a boy's number be so tempting for her? She couldn't possibly want to talk to him that badly. She sighed, leaning against her chair. Yes, they had already kissed twice, and both kisses had been exhilarating, but she couldn't actually make a relationship out of all this, could she?

"Rory! Your father's here!"

Rory had dreaded for those words to come out of her mother's mouth. She groaned, and yelled back: "Tell him I'll be right there!" After that, she picked up her bag and sulked all the way outside. August was already chatting him up, talking and smiling.

"So, how are your dance lessons?"

She saw her father ask her sister, a smile playing on his face also.

"Oh, their super. I mean, me and Anna are having so much fun. People say that ballet is really boring, it really isn't. Quite the opposite. And school's going great. Straight B's. I know it should be A's...but, the ballet is really taking time off of my studies."

The tall man smiled and kissed her forehead. "Whatever you want, baby. If ballet is more important to you than school. Than that's okay."

_Someone has to get their priorities straight. _Rory couldn't help but think as she walked to her father. As soon as he saw her, he ran up to her and twirled his youngest daughter around. Rory couldn't help but get lost in that Daddy-smell. The smell of a pinch of cologne, and the smell of the drier that had dried the once wet shirt. She hugged him tightly. No matter how much she could hate her father, she loved him with all her heart, and sometimes it was okay to forget all the bad things that he might have done.

"Dad, I'm really too old for you to be carrying me." Rory smiled, as he put her down.

He shook his head, looking at his daughter proudly. "You'll always be my little girl." He stepped back to take a long look at her. "Wow, baby. You look so huge. 17 years old...wow. I should have come and visited you before."

"You should have, but that's okay." She gave him the innocent smile that showed him that it was alright.

Chris gave her a happy sigh. "I'm glad you let me do this."

"Mom wouldn't want to drive all the way to Harvard if we just went to New York the other day."

"Well, I'm glad I could be here for this memory. My little girl's going to college..."

"A college experience...not actual college. I'm just going to stay with somebody that can tour me around Harvard and show me what college life is going to be like. It's just for three days, it's not too long, anyways."

Chris shook his head firmly. "Your gonna have fun."

"Whatever you say."

He nodded, and grabbed the bag from her, walking behind his daughter to get to the trunk where he set the bag. Chris shut the trunk and looked at August before climbing in the car. "I'll call you, honey?"

August smiled politely. "Okay, daddy."

Rory took the hint and climbed in the front seat of the car, waving to August, who seemed to have just gotten a message from her boyfriend because she was squealing. She buckled her seatbelt and closed the door with a small.

"Don't you think this will be fun?" Her dad asked, turning on the car.

"Sure."

The drive to Harvard was long and boring. Chris had pretty good songs on the CD's he played, but every once in a while they would hit one of Sherry's songs. Something that would make Rory gag. But, the spending time with her father was good. Sure, he could be a jerk, but it was okay, because he was still her dad.

When they reached Harvard, Rory was awestruck. She couldn't think that she would ever be a part of something so big. So great. She could barely lift herself up when her father got out of the car, because she was so tired and her legs were so cramped for so long. She stretched out, feeling much better.

She bit her lip. "So…"

"You'll be okay?" Chris asked, looking around the campus.

"Oh yeah. You can go. I'm sure Sherry is waiting for you at home." Rory nodded, her mood not uplifting. He kissed her forehead and looked at her brightly.

"Have a great weekend. Call me if you need anything, I'm 15 minutes away."

Rory nodded, waving as he mounted his car, leaving her in the middle of the campus. Alone. With no one else but her bag. She sighed, looking around. Everyone either had their heads in their books, or were talking to their fellow college-mates. If that's the right term.

She looked down at the papers that she was holding. There was a map of Harvard, and all the information that she needed to find the dorm she would be sharing for the next three days. She picked up her bag and started on her adventure.

When she finally got to the building she was supposed to be at, (it took her a while to get the names right) she looked for the dorm.

"What's this number..?" She mumbled to herself, looking up at the door. "Okay. This should be it."

She knocked on the door, blowing the hair that had fallen on her face, the bag and the purse that she needed to carry occupied her hands. In another second, before she could even look up, the door swung open.

"What the--," Rory started, looking surprised.

"Rory." Jess smirked. "I see you've found where you're supposed to be. Took you long enough."

"But, what are you doing here? I was supposed to be paired up with Katie Thompson."

"Well, I wasn't going to ruin the surprise." He said, looking at her closely.

Rory shook her head, dropping her bags. "But, there can't be a surprise. You see, girls and boys aren't supposed to be paired up. I can't sleep here."

"Who said? You've always seemed friendly to the male species."

"Yes, but the rules--,"

"Screw the rules. Come in." He moved aside, so she could enter. Rory gave him a death glare, and sighed. She picked up her bag and entered the messy dorm.

She sighed, running a hand through her hair. "Look, this doesn't mean that I'm staying here. I'm going to the office that handles these kinds of things…and then I'll tell her that they've made a mistake."

Jess shrugged, sitting down on one of the beds, and in front of his laptop. "Do whatever you want, but there's been no mistake."

"How couldn't there have been?"

"Well, they were a little desperate for volunteers, and there weren't any girls left to take another girl in…and since we got to choose who we wanted. I chose you, since there wasn't anybody else to do the job."

Rory frowned. "I'll sleep in the Janitor's Closet."

"Why are you so against this, again?"

She shrugged, stuttering. "Well, I mean, I'm just a stickler for the rules."

"It wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that you think something will happen?"

Rory looked at him as if he was crazy. "What? No. Of course not. I may be only a senior in High School, but that doesn't mean that I'm stupid. It's only been a few nights since…what happened. And, well, nothing could happen. Right?" She narrowed her eyes at him.

He smirked, his eyes focusing on the computer now. "Uh-huh."

-0-

Rory spent the rest of the day out of the dorm. Maybe it was the fear that something _would _happen with Jess, or maybe it was just her own crazy mind. But, either way, she didn't see Jess still nighttime. And that was because he called her cellphone so she would meet her at a coffee kiosk on campus. She was about to say no, and then she remembered that she would have to see him sometime.

He sounded a bit more cheerful when she said yes, and gave her the instructions to get to the specific kiosk. When, she walked in the direction that he wanted her to meet him, her stomach did a flip when she saw that he wasn't alone. A girl that looked about Jess' age, with black hair, and about his height was talking to him.

"Hey…" Rory cleared her throat.

Jess looked at Rory, smirking. "Hi. Well, my work here is done. I'll be going now."

"Jess, what are you--," Rory raised an eyebrow.

"This is Sarah." He gestured to the girl that was standing next to him.

Those were the last words he said before walking away.

Rory turned to the girl, waiting for an explanation. "Uh..?"

"Oh, right. Jess asked me to come and meet you." She said, smiling. "You must be Rory, then."

"Yeah…but, I'm still confused."

Sarah nodded, and gestured to a small table in front of the kiosk. "I'm Jess' friend. I met him this year. We've become close and everything. He can be tough, but trust me, it's mutual."

She looked down. "Oh. So you two are…?"

Sarah looked at her as if she was crazy. "God, no. I would never…with Jess. He's just way too much for me."

"Too much?"

"Well, Jess isn't exactly easy to get along with."

Rory looked up, feeling a little better. "Yeah, he isn't. I'm still a little confused, though. Why would he ask you to meet me?"

"He said we'd get along. And…he said that you weren't exactly great on spending time with him. So, he said if you were going to be awkward, then I should just show you around." Sarah said brightly. "Don't worry…Jess seems to like you."

"Why would that worry me?"

"It's a little obvious, don't you think?"

Rory frowned, "No. What?"

"That you're going to be one of his next victims."

"Victim?" She asked blankly.

"Actually, no. You seem bright. You would never let Jess be Jess. I'm sure that everything will turn out fine."

"I'm sorry…but it's all a little…no, _very_ confusing."

Sarah sighed. "Let's just leave it at this. Jess wanted me to meet you because he thought that we'd get along. I'm just babbling."

Rory smiled, playing with her thumbs. "Then, nice to meet you."

"So…where would you like to go? I mean, there's a whole campus to get to."

"Well, we don't have much time…I'll have to get my sleep so I could get ready to shadow Jess tomorrow."

Sarah laughed. "Wow, I feel sorry for you."

--

A/N: Okay, this chapter was kind of a filler. The next chapter is where everything begins. Rory shadowing Jess…-winks-, basically everything. Plus, you'll know a little more about Sarah by the time that Rory leaves Harvard. Next chapter, it's going to be Harvard part 2. Lol.

I know this chapter wasn't much, but please review! (at least just to say hi)


	8. Good?

A/N: And I have updated. Thanks for the reviews everyone! You guys are lovely. This has kind of been the only story I've been able to write this week, because I have so much writer's block for everything else. So, consider yourselves lucky. Okay, enough of me blabbering on and on with the story.

--

Rory awoke the next morning with a slight headache. Or was it? She looked up at the ceiling and was immediately shocked by a bright light that was surrounding her, and it did not look welcoming. She rolled over, thinking it was her bed at home, and it was bigger. Since this was a college-dorm mattress, it was small, so instead of rolling over, she fell on the floor, entangled in a sea of sheets.

"Now, that's a photo moment."

She groaned, recognizing Jess' voice. She would recognize it anywhere by now. "Light bad. Kill Jess. Turn...off."

"I'm sorry, but the only way I could wake you up without violating your personal space, was to place a flashlight in front of your face. I thought that the light would eventually give you a headache, and you would wake up." Jess said impatiently.

Rory frowned, opening her eyes slightly. "Wow, you're so smart. So, now that you've proved that fact, will you help me get up?"

Jess smirked, walking over to where she was lying. Rory took her hands out of the mess and held them out. He grabbed them and pulled so she would stand up, even though her feet were still covered with the white sheets.

"Thanks." She muttered grumpily.

He nodded, walking over to pick up his backpack. "Why are you in a bad mood?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because its…what…five o'clock in the morning!" Rory grabbed her watch and shoved it in his face. "I don't know what you're used to, but that's a no-no in my book."

"I'll store that information for future reference. Now, get changed so we can go and have breakfast."

Rory smiled to herself. "Coffee."

She walked around the small dorm, grabbing the clothes that she had picked for the day, and when she was finally done she sighed. "Okay, now that I am fully awake we can go." Jess gave her a slight smile and a nod, and walked out the door, assuming she would follow.

Rory sighed, grabbing a pad and a pencil.

He looked at her with a furrowed brow. "You plan on taking notes?"

"Well, how will I learn anything? And study?"

"I thought the purpose for this was to have fun." 

She shook her head stubbornly. "Of course not. It's for Chilton, Jess. And I'm sure you remember what that requires. Now, I should take notes just in case they ask questions." She suddenly stopped abruptly and looked at a bench that had carvings on it. "This looks like it's important."

Jess looked at the bench. "It's a bench. I don't think it has any other purpose but for it to have people's butts all over it all day."

"It has to have some history or something."

He shrugged. "I don't know, Rory. I'm hungry. Can we go?"

Rory crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm not moving until I hear a story."

Jess rolled his eyes, pondering this for a moment. "Um, Ben Franklin read a book on it….and then George Washington came over to him and they made a secret handshake."

Rory looked at him sternly. "That sucked."

"I'm hungry."

"The times aren't even correct." She went on.

He sighed, and took her by the arm. "This is not going to become a habit. I will not stop at every single bench and tell you if someone stood on it or did something historical. In fact, all of this tour will consist of is dried up cornflakes and an Oliver Twist book."

Rory raised an eyebrow. "What?"

He smirked, and pulled out his bag. He took out a handful of old cereal and then put it back in, and then he took out a book with the title of Oliver Twist clear on the cover. "I do not lie."

"I'm not even going to ask why you have that in your bag."

They made their way to where they would be eating, and Rory couldn't help but smile the whole way. Jess made many stops on the way, saying hi to so many people she couldn't even count. He must be popular, then. But, that wasn't the case, she saw. Every other girl, she could tell that was sending her death glares. Was it because Jess was holding her arm subconsciously? Or was it because they didn't like her outfit? Her guess was the first one. And that was why. He was rich and handsome, people liked him and looked up to him because of that.

But, why hadn't she seen that? Was she the only person that would hang around with him just because of some of the things he does? Or maybe it was possible that she was just as shallow as every girl that looked at him with a dreamy look.

She gave up the fight with herself when they finally made it to the eating area. Jess let go of her then, and she couldn't help but looking at the exact place that he had been touching at that moment.

Jess looked at her curiously. "So, where do you want to start?" 

Rory, kind of zoned out, snapped out of it. "Oh. Right. Food. Um, I'm not really hungry. But, I could do for cereal? Anything but what's in your bag." She cringed, and he chuckled. 

He nodded. "Okay…" Then, she noticed that he was eyeing a girl near the cereal bar. "I'll go get it and you can get a table."

Rory felt a little bit of jealousy in the pit of her stomach. "You sure?"

"Oh yeah. I know just what to get."

She couldn't help but notice that he was still looking at that redheaded girl. But, she agreed and went to look for an empty table. When she was seated, and looking through her purse, she saw that Jess had brought the redhead right to their table. 

Jess cleared his throat. "Rory."

Rory looked up, "Hi." That sounded like the most stupid thing she could've said.

"Sydney, Rory. Rory, Sydney."

Sydney smiled at her, she knew she was just being nice. "Hello."

"Hi." Why was she being so dumb? It was the only thing that she had said in the last two seconds.

Jess raised an eyebrow. "Sydney, I'm showing Rory around the campus. She's a senior in Chilton. There's a program for that here. I volunteered."

Rory could hear her sneering at her. "Oh, that's so cute."

She felt as if she was going to pat her head. Rory finally said something. "So…how do you know each other?"

"A party. But, you wouldn't know much about that, would you?" Sydney snapped, shooting death glares her way. Then, she turned to Jess. "I have to go to meet my girlfriends. But, I'll catch up." She kissed his cheek, and walked away.

Rory looked at Jess. "Um?" 

"Don't worry about that, she's just being her."

She rolled her eyes. "I don't even know why you hang around with people like that. Your obviously nothing like them, I mean, when I hang out with you, you seem so different. Sarcastic, you like books, you're nice."

He sighed, looking down at his cereal. "I wouldn't call me anything yet."

"Well, from what I know so far…I see a nice guy."

"Looks can be deceiving."

The rest of the breakfast was pretty quiet, then again they had nothing to say. Rory kept on looking up to see if there was anything that was worth taking notes, or maybe just to steal glances at Jess. As they walked out to the campus, ready to start their day, Rory got this overwhelming feeling that Jess was not up to this. Not up to showing her around campus, or maybe he just didn't like cheerleader-Rory as opposed to non-cheerleader-Rory.

She took out her pencil, and placed it behind her ear, continuing to follow Jess around.

"So...where are we going now?"

He shrugged, taking out his book from his back pocket. "I plan on playing hookie. Don't know if you would still like to proceed to the classes."

"But, that's impossible. I'm here to learn."

"Fine. You go."

"But–"

Jess looked at her with the first smirk he had flashed since their last conversation. "Come with me, or be a good school girl and do homework. I don't think it's a life-threatening decision. But, whatever." She shook her head at herself, ready to say no.

"Jess...please. I would play hookie with you any other day. I promise. But, I really need to, well, do this."

"What happened to the Rory Gilmore that I met at the beach?"

"I have responsibilities, Jess. I can't just leave them and run. That's called being scared." She said wisely, sighing. "You go and have fun. Can you just point me to the class?"

Jess looked down. He had not been expecting this lecture. Responsibility? "I'll go."

Rory raised an eyebrow, surprised. "Huh?"

"I'll go with you to the class."

She blinked, really not expecting this. But, her face immediately lit up as she tucked her hair in behind her ear. "Thank you. I promise, you won't regret it." She smiled broadly for everyone to see.

As the morning came and went, Rory felt a bit smarter, and Jess felt a bit more challenged. Never in his life had he ever listened to a girl. He had always been in charge, it was him who decided what to do, he wore the smirk. He was always right. And here came this girl with a great future, and she was completely perfect. She could take the world on without a worry. What made her the person that he would listen to? It drove hm crazier as the hours wore on.

"Wow." Rory gushed. "I could have never imagined that something could be this great."

"College?"

"What else? I mean, everyone's so smart. I'm not the smartest anymore, I have this great group of people who are just waiting to challenge me. It's so exciting." Rory raved, smiling as if there was no tomorrow. "I don't know how you could not like this."

"Maybe I would like it more if it was on my own free will." Jess muttered.

She rolled her eyes, "You know what? I'm tired of your whining. Why can't you just enjoy the experience if you have it? Sure, your parents are the ones who wanted you to come here, but that doesn't mean that you can't make this school your own. Don't you think you would be happier if you would just stop being miserable?"

"I can't believe it's you who's saying this."

"Why?"

He shrugged, as he dodged another student, who was walking really fast. "Your just...I mean, I never thought that we would be in this position when I met you at the Gas Station."

Rory looked at him with a stern look on her face. "What? You thought that you would just sleep with me and then you'd just be through? I may have gone home with that guy, Jess, but it's not exactly my personality."

He smirked. "What is your personality?"

"Oh, trust me, the way things are going...you'll see." She blushed.

"The way things are going?"

Rory rolled her eyes, exasperated. "Can't you just let me have my great line and not question it?"

Jess smirked, looking at her. "Fine. I'll let you have this one. But, the next great line is mine." She chuckled. "Now that we have gone to my classes...can I show you where the fun is?"

"Okay...where is the fun?"

"Sarah told me that Micheal is in town to throw, and I quote, 'the best freaking party ever, man.'" Jess shook his head at himself, and smirked. "What do you think? Rejoin Micheal for old times sakes?"

"We didn't have much of old times, but whatever." She smiled. "Is Sarah coming too?"

He nodded. "She's the one who's driving."

"I'm in."

"Did you bring anything to wear?"

"I think for Micheal, the best clothes you can wear are probably a thong and a bra. So, I'll be okay."

"The less clothes the better." He agreed, smirking. "I'll call Sarah so you can have a nice girly-getting-ready-for-a-bash session. What do you think?"

"I know where her dorm is, so, I'll just get my clothes and go."

He agreed, "Meet you in 'our dorm'." He said, just to make her mad.

-0-

"Cute or slutty?" Sarah asked, holding up a dress.

Rory smiled. She liked this. She couldn't do any of this with her friends in Stars Hollow or Hartford. All her Chilton friends didn't care what she thought, maybe she wasn't that great at fashion or something. But, the fact that Sarah asked for her opinion, it made her feel happy and girly. Which, wasn't a feeling she had very often. "Slutty."

Sarah looked at the dress closely and nodded in agreement. "So...I haven't seen what_ your_ wearing." She smirked evilly as she looked through her closet.

"Um, well, it's actually nothing big."

"It's never nothing big. A girl has to make an entrance."

She shrugged, leaning back on the headboard of Sarah's bed. "I'll probably go in jeans or something."

Sarah stopped what she was doing, and turned around, looking at Rory seriously. She practically choked over her words. "Jeans or something? Jeans or something?" She repeated, like it was the hugest deal in the world. "No, no, no, my dear girl. There is no way in the universe."

"I'm not a great fashion woman like yourself." Rory replied, sinking down on the bed.

"You have to sweep our dear boy Jess off his feet. He has to choke on his words, and get clammy hands, he also has to trip on himself."

"Trip on himself?"

"Well, it's what guys do when their nervous. It's creepy, I know."

She rolled her eyes, fiddling with her thumbs. "I'm not planning to sweep anyone off their feet."

"Rory, honestly, if you were any denser, you would be Brownie. You have to look great. Always."

Rory sighed, sitting up straight. "And how do I do that?"

Sarah seemed to be deep in thought for a few minutes and then she squealed. "Come on."

-0-

Jess stood outside his door, waiting impatiently. Maybe it was the anticipation of actually being with Rory, or maybe just because he hadn't been to a party in a long time. Well, a party with an old friend, at least. Yeah, it had to be it. He had never had more than sexual feelings for anyone, it couldn't be possible that after all that time he could actually have 'butterflies in his stomach.'

But, as Rory and Sarah walked down the hallway, his stomach was in for a wild ride. His eyes wandered all over Rory's body, taking in every inch as she walked towards him timidly. She was in a short, brown dress with a pink hem making her skin look radiant. Her hair was down, but he could tell that she hadn't straightened it because he saw the slight curl at the end of each strand. It was so amazing because she didn't look too under-dressed or over-dressed which was what any girl could hope for. As she smiled at him, blushing, she could see her exposed neck which just made him want to grab her and kiss her. But it was her beautiful blue eyes that sent him reeling,. It just topped everything off.

Sarah was beautiful as always, he couldn't deny that. With a skirt and a pretty shirt that brought out her smoky green eyes. He nodded at the ladies, walking forward.

He put a hand on the small of Rory's back, politely. "Wow." He whispered in her ear. She found this extremely uncharacteristic, as it didn't sound sarcastic or cocky. But, she couldn't help and beam. "Sarah."

Sarah frowned. "God, you idiot, compliment me."

Rory laughed at how open she was with Jess. It seemed impossible for her to ever be this way.

Jess shook his head at himself and sighed. "Beautiful, as always."

"Aww...Jessie." Sarah pinched his cheek mockingly. "Let's go now. Can't wait to see Micheal."

As she walked in front of them, Rory leaned in to Jess. "When did Sarah meet Micheal?"

Jess smirked. "Their like twins, when they finally found out that they were soul mates Sarah rode all the way to New York just to sleep with him. I found it a little desperate, but apparently they found each other."

Rory giggled. "Just makes you think of true love, huh?"

When they got to a small house, there were about a billion cars parked outside and there were people smashing a bunch of beer bottles against a tree going, 'Dude! That's so not cool!' and then doing it over and over again. Rory felt a little out of place as they walked inside the smoky, party-filled house. She hadn't gone out to parties unless it was with Madeline and Louise, they had practically dragged her there, though.

But, Jess fit right in. Sure, he wasn't very talkative, but he still knew everybody and everybody knew him. She was always looked at like she was just a girl at the end of his arm for a night. She nodded at them, and just smiled.

"I'm going to go and get a drink. Beer?" Jess asked over all the noise, again, it just made Rory want to get out of there.

Rory shook her head, sighing. "Uh, no. I'm just going to sit here for a while. You go party."

He narrowed his eyes at her, but she showed no reaction. So, she just turned her head, and he had no choice but to go off into the big mess that Micheal liked to call a party.

Rory was sitting there quietly, when she saw a dark figure hover over her head. She looked up and smiled. "Micheal." Her voice sounded excited to meet someone she actually knew for once.

Micheal stood there, proud of himself for throwing 'the wonderful party.' He smirked, "My darling. And how are we tonight? Enjoying one self, I hope?"

"I'm just kind of lurking in the back."

"Now, that's no fun. Come dance with me." He offered her a hand, but she again shook her head.

She refused, "Sorry. Not big on the dancing."

"It's easy, now, come." He grabbed her hand, and lead her to the basic little place where everyone was dancing closely. Everyone was basically grinding to each other, the music was filling their ears. Micheal lead them to a spot on the dance floor , and he placed his hands on her hips. She had no choice but to move to the music, and to his rhythm.

Her attention wasn't to the dance, but to everyone around her. The noise was booming through her ears, and she felt like she was about to burst at any second. It was that intense, she wasn't used to it at all. That's why she was surprised when she saw Jess standing next to Micheal, seeing his friend, he stopped.

Rory stopped her fast breathing, that had developed with all the noise and the fog that was coming from a machine next to them. "Hey." She stated shakily.

He raised an eyebrow. "Micheal..."

She looked at them, and she saw that she was sandwiched between them. Not close, but they looked like they weren't that friendly. She didn't know how long they had been dancing, or if he had been watching. Was he even her date? It was all too confusing.

They were talking to each other, she could barely make out the words. She moved to talk to Jess, but then she saw that Sarah was standing on the side, eyeing them. Her first instinct was to stay and talk herself out of the mess, but she saw how sad she was and all she could think of is to walk over and apologize.

"Sarah...I don't know what happened. He asked me to dance, then Jess."

"You do like the attention, don't you?"

Rory hated how girls could get bitchy in a second without warning. She winced, "This is typical behavior. I didn't even know what we were doing, it was sudden, I couldn't think with the loud music. It was...I'm just–,"

Sarah looked down. "Spare me the speech."

Then, a sound took their attention from each other.

BAM!

Everything happened quickly, and she couldn't catch her breath as she turned around to see Jess sucker-punch Micheal in an instant. Her mind was spinning, and she hadn't even had a drink. Sarah was already trying to keep the guys apart, but Rory was breathing fast.

She moved across the house until she reached outside.

She walked to the fence that separated the small, but now, trashed house from the street. She looked at the house in front of her and sat down against the white picket fence.

The next thing she saw in a matter of minutes, a blonde girl that was sucking on a lollipop ran out to her.

"Hi, you might wanna come check on your guy. He's like totally out of it, black eye and everything." The blonde threw her hair back and ran back into the house.

Rory sighed, she didn't know whether to run from the angst or go back in...

But, as she walked up the stairs her head was doing the responsible thing. The door creaked open as she stepped into the room, which was pretty much empty, except for a twin bed with a sore looking Jess in the center of it, lying down. She shook her head, and walked up to him, sitting down beside him.

She examined his bruise. "Your such an idiot."

"Drunk." He seemed to make sense of his reasoning for saying that, though.

"You were drunk?" She tried to help him along with putting the sentence together, as she touched his swollen lip.

He winced, but nodded. "Ruined it."

"Ruined what?"

"The night." Jess mumbled, wincing in pain once again. "The–the night that was supposed to be gooood." He slurred, barely getting the words out as she continued to nurse him. She shook her head.

"Jess, why do you do this?"

He opened his eyes lazily, obviously drunk. "What?"

"This." She gestured to his black-eye. "We're not in High School anymore. This stuff isn't cool, and you being jealous of something that hasn't even happened, is not heroic. What got into you?"

He smiled, for the first time, she saw a real smile. But, it made her queezy inside, and not in a good way, this was a drunk smile. "Your good."

"I'm good?"

"Pretty, nice, perfect."

Rory shook her head, sighing. "You really must be drunk." She looked beside the bed, where there was a small moist towel. She smiled and picked it up, wiping it lightly over his face. "Your such an idiot, punching Micheal like that."

"He was going to kiss you." He fought in his defense, but failed miserably.

Rory rolled her eyes. "He wasn't, Jess. We were dancing. As you don't dance, _remember_?"

"No."

"Well, you don't." She put down the towel and looked at him sincerely. "It was a stupid move, did you think I was going to let Micheal kiss me?" He shrugged, trying to lift his head up, but wincing terribly. "Well, I wasn't. You're my date."

He furrowed a brow. "You didn't want to."

"What?"

"Be my date."

She looked down. "That's not true." Rory shook her head at herself, she was trying to reason with somebody who was drunk. "I think that you shouldn't do this anymore. Come to parties just to get drunk, you hurt people when you do this. Me, perhaps." She sighed, running a hand through his messed up hair.

Jess didn't meet her eyes, as maybe it was a lot harder to think when you had a lot to drink. "I'm lonely."

Her eyes widened at the response, but she couldn't help and feel a huge feeling of sorry for him. She gave him a friendly smile and placed her now cold hand on his bruise, rubbing it gently with her thumb. He caught her hand, and she felt goosebumps as he held her hand near his chest.

"I don't want to be lonely." After that, his eyes fluttered close. She looked at her hand that was being held by his', she pulled away and stood up. She kneeled beside him, and kissed him on the forehead lightly.

She sat there, feeling completely tired. She ran a hand over where he had touched her hand, she felt that the goosebumps weren't gone.

--

A/N: I will trade a review for an update. Any offers?


	9. It Only Has Just Begun

Disclaimer: I'd love to own Gilmore Girls, but sadly I don't.

A/N: See what happens when everyone reviews? You guys lift my spirits and I update really fast. I'm glad everyone liked the chapter, it put a smile upon my face knowing that your all so into the story.

Hope you like the chapter, it's not much. But, oh well?

--

Ouch.

That was the thing that crossed through Rory's mind when she woke up the next morning. She lifted her head, which just caused her neck more pain. She rubbed the place where it hurt, and sighed. She had had her head resting on the end of the mattress and her body was rested on the floor, what surprised her was that she had a red blanket over her shoulders.

She winced, it was cold. She wrapped it around her tighter, and looked around at her surroundings. The light of the morning sun was shining through the window and when she looked over to the bed that she was leaned against, Jess wasn't located in it anymore. She furrowed a brow and sighed.

Her legs were failing her, as it had been an uncomfortable night, but she managed to get down the stairs. "Oh crap." She whispered to herself as she glanced at the clock at the bottom of the stairs. It was already 12 o'clock and she needed to be at Harvard soon. But, before she could put thought to this, she felt hands go over her eyes.

She furrowed a brow. "Hm?"

"Guess." Said a voice that she recognized so well, this instantly made her smile.

She sighed, faking to be thinking about it. "I don't know…it could be anyone. But, I think my best guess is…Jess." She stated, feeling confident in herself.

He took his hands off of her eyes and walked in front of her. "Wow. You guessed. I'm proud."

"Hm. Too early for sarcasm."

Jess smirked, shaking his head. "Well, then we should get you home, shouldn't we?"

Rory smiled, eyeing the bruise under his eye. "Jess, are you alright? I didn't get a chance to take care of that eye. It probably got worse."

He shook his head again, "Sarah came in and took care of it."

"Sarah?" She asked nervously.

"She also put the blanket over you so you wouldn't get cold."

"She's not mad?"

"She didn't seem mad. She kind of explained everything that happened after Micheal brought me to that room. It was late, and she had to wake me up because my eye was swollen."

She looked confused, "Micheal?"

"We fight, but we don't hold a grudge."

"But isn't it a tad weird that you get into a fight and then the next second you guys' are best buddies…?"

He sighed. "Micheal's a good guy."

"Yes, I know that, but--,"

Jess groaned, closing his eyes. "Can we not discuss this right now? You need to get back to the dorm so you can change and then your ride's going to be there." He pointed to his eye, "Plus, this hurts like hell."

Rory ran a hand through her messy-morning hair, and let go of the blanket. She ran a hand through her dress, and unstuck confetti that had stuck when she had been dancing. "Okay. Do you know where my purse might be?"

"Um, I don't think your going to find it in this mess."

"Then let's just go."

Before Rory could question how they would get there, when they reached outside, Sarah was waiting in the car. Jess explained that she had called in the morning, offering her driving services. Rory felt a little nervous seeing Sarah again, because of their fight, but she sucked it up and climbed in the car next to Sarah.

"Hey." Rory said meekly.

Sarah patted her lap. "Don't worry, chickadee, we're okay."

She smiled at her friend, all in all, she was glad how she could make her feel so much better just by speaking kind words. "I just wanted to make sure, you know. I don't want to--,"

"I get it. Don't worry about it."

Jess looked uncomfortable with the conversation as he looked at them from the back seat. "Sorry to disrupt the moment. But could we get out of here?"

They nodded, and Sarah started the car slowly. They talked all through the car ride, but Rory had other things in her mind. Like the crazy weekend. She had never had something like it, sure, she had been places, but it had been fun there for a while. She looked out the window the whole way, aside from the angst…college was for her.

When they reached the dorm, Rory just plopped herself on the bed, sighing.

"Long weekend, huh?" Jess sighed, looking at himself in the mirror. "At least you came out unscarred."

"Maybe that's a bad thing." Rory said in a smothered voice because of the pillows. She lifted her head, "It was fun, though."

He nodded, "Didn't get much studying done, though."

"Like you care." She scoffed.

"I may not care, but you do."

Rory sat up, smiling. "It's okay."

They sat in silence, looking at each other until Rory finally had to get dressed. She put the dress on the bed, and left a note for Sarah so she could take it with her since it was her dress. She was kind of relieved to go home, she had to admit. Maybe go back to some normality, or maybe weirdness again.

As they walked out of the dorm, and on to the rest of the campus. Jess seemed much more warmer, he actually put an arm around her. She looked up at him and smiled. She had no idea what this meant, but for her, it was a nice gesture.

They stopped in front of the building; Rory decided that she could go on from there.

"Are you sure?"

She nodded. "My dad's going to probably question me about you if he sees you dropping me off."

Jess ran a hand through his hair and nodded slowly. "So, what do we do now?"

Rory nodded at his awkwardness. She barely got to see that with Jess, and maybe it was a good thing. She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. "You'll call me?"

He looked at her with sincerity. "Yeah. I'll call you."

With that word, she couldn't help but beam. Rory walked off, giving him a small wave. When she got to her father's car, she got a weird feeling in her stomach. She said hi to her father, and settled herself in the back seat. But, as she got out her cell phone, she felt uneasy.

"Hello?"

She had heard his voice a second ago, but now that they were on the road, it seemed farther away. "Jess. Hi. Okay, this may seem completely weird. But, I don't want you to call me. It's way too open; I want plans and a date with a time. I don't want to not see you for a year when we happen to bump into each other again. It's—I just, I don't want that."

"Okay."

"Okay? That's it. No sarcastic comment or a complete weird answer. No questioning my freaking out or anything?"

Jess smirked, "I know your weird, already. Don't need a refreshment course on that but… okay. When?"

Rory smiled to herself. "_I'll_ call you."

Jess shook his head to himself and chuckled. "Okay."

She closed the call and held her cellphone to her chest. She'd call him.

-0-

Jess closed the call also, leaning against the headboard of his bed, thinking of what had happened that weekend. But a knock on the door made him get up from his bed to answer the door.

"Liz." He greeted his mother breathlessly.

--

A/N: Cliffhanger! How evil am I?

Remember to **review**!


	10. Rock Bottom

A/N: Once again, I have updated. To all my reviewers, you are the best. Seriously, you make me want to keep on writing. I worked really hard on this chapter and I hope that it's to your liking.

Remember to leave me a **review**!

--

The cold winter air hit Rory in the face on a fresh Friday morning, as she got on to the same old bus, her foot tapped in anticipation to get out of there. She had never liked riding the bus to Chilton, but her mother was far too busy with her job (and now with her new boyfriend) to be able to even drive her out of Stars Hollow. She sighed, and unzipped her backpack. There lay all the books she would use for the day, and just by seeing that made her want to get the day over with, so, she could focus on the weekend.

Like the date with Jess.

_Her _date with Jess.

It was amazing what a little arm-twisting could do. Everything fell into place when she had called him in the beginning of the week, he seemed upset about something and she thought that maybe this would cheer him up. He agreed to meet her in this little coffee place about an hour out of Connecticut.

She closed the book she was reading, the smell of bus giving her a headache. But, it didn't matter, because the bus screeched to a stop in front of Chilton a few minutes later.

As she approached her locker, she could see that Paris was already waiting there for her with a cup of coffee in her hand.

"To-go-cup?" Paris asked, strangely pleasant.

Rory eyed the cup, sensing something weird. "If this is any kind of bribe, I'll hurt you."

She handed her the cup. "Well, aren't we just in a bad mood this morning?"

"Well, let's just put it this way…I'm not going to be opening for The Happiest Donut any time soon."

"What?"

She sighed, putting in her number-code for the locker. "It's a town thing."

Paris smiled. "Ah, the town things. That's what I need tomorrow. A town thing. Your freakishly small town is a good place to start. You know, a night out on the town. Invite me."

Rory turned to Paris, shaking her head. "No can do, Paris. I have a date."

"What happened to Jordan?"

"Well, if you must be clueless…we broke up."

"I knew that. But, why aren't you swimming in a large sea of grief?"

She furrowed a brow, "I don't swim in grief. I get right back up. Anyways, the point is that I can't take you out for a 'night on the town' because I have plans." She turned back to her locker. "I'm not about to change them."

Paris looked at her impatiently. "There must be something going on in that town of yours. A carnival, perhaps?"

"No." She paused, "A Dance Marathon."

"That's perfect." Paris exclaimed, looking very excited. "We'll go to the marathon. Blow off the lame excuse for a date and come with me."

"Paris, it's my town…and there's a reason I don't go to these things."

"And…?"

"And their tiring, and the same people always win every year."

Paris shook her head. "We could win."

"I have a date."

She seemed to ponder this for a moment and then just jumped right back into the argument. "Bring him, he'll be your partner…and I'll bring someone too. Double date, but like a marathon."

Rory seemed confused. "How did you think of that so soon?"

"Well--," She looked guilty.

"Paris, the whole idea for a night on the town was for me to come with you on your date, wasn't it?" Rory crossed her arms over her chest. "I can't do that."

"Please. I'm not good at the whole dating thing. You'll be lamer than me, and he won't be able to point and laugh."

"Paris…" She groaned. "I really don--,"

"Just be there. E-mail me the directions and we can go. It's not like you're not young, there will be time for you to go on a date for your own."

With that being said, she walked off, not letting Rory argue the point.

She looked at her feet; this was officially the worst Friday she could have that week.

-0-

Rory stumbled into her house that afternoon, and what caught her attention was not the messy living room, but a beeping answering machine. What crossed her mind instantly was Jess. Maybe he called? She was being hopeful. She pressed the button to hear the message.

_Rory, It's me, I'm staying at Luke's tonight…so, don't let—_

She cut her mother's message off by erasing it. She didn't really care about anything that was going on in her mother's life. The truth was, that they had a fight the day before…it really wasn't a surprise. They were always fighting.

Rory dropped her bag on the floor, sighing. She walked into the kitchen, opening the fridge to see if there was anything to eat in the house. There was nothing but milk. She picked up the carton and took a swig of it.

She stared at the phone that was on the kitchen table. She had to call him sometime so she could break the news that he was supposed to go to a Dance Marathon.

"Hello?" Jess' voice sounded much more annoyed that day.

Rory started to pace, nervous. "Jess. It's me…Rory."

His voice sounded a little bit happier, which took her a little by surprise. "Thank god. A sane person."

"Well, I wouldn't go that far." She joked.

"Um, so, what are you doing?"

He sounded like he was paying attention to something else rather than the conversation. Maybe that was to her benefit.

"Oh, nothing. But, I have bad news."

"Bad news, huh? Pretty popular these days." Jess snapped on the other line, and ran a hand through his hair. "Go ahead."

Rory cleared her throat. "Well, I have to change the events of tomorrow's date."

"Date?"

She felt her stomach jump, how could he not remember? "Me and you. We planned a date, but if you don't remember…we could just cancel. Um, you sound preoccupied." The truth was, she didn't even want to think of canceling.

"No, no. I remember." He sighed, "So, what change?"

"Well, you know Paris, right?" She didn't give him a chance to answer. "She's kind of dragging us to a double date…at a Dance Marathon. And I know that it's the last thing you want to be doing…I'm really sorry."

"That's okay."

Rory raised an eyebrow. This was not normal behavior; Jess would have made a sarcastic comment, and then challenged her with witty banter. He sounded weird. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." He paused, "Look, I have to go. But, where should I pick you up?"

She stood up straighter, happy that he agreed. "Well, when you get into Stars Hollow, there's a huge town square. I'll be waiting in the gazebo."

"Okay. Bye."

-0-

Rory could barely sleep all night. The Dance Marathon had her so excited, not the actual dancing part but the whole Jess thing. She knew it was girly to be so excited, or maybe it was because this was the first time she had actually _really _wanted to go on a date with a person.

In the morning, her alarm clock rang and she was awake on the first ring. Her mind was immediately set to getting ready. Maybe because it was four in the morning, she was a little slow, but her excitement conquered her tiredness.

She finished setting the last bobby pins in her hair, and then twirled around in front of the mirror.

Rory nodded, satisfied that she looked good enough. Sure, she had to wash her face with cold water a few times so she could look the best and not too sleepy like she would have. But, as she walked to the Gazebo, everything was going great in her eyes.

A few people were lurking around the Gazebo when she got there, but they left quickly after. She sat down on the bench and looked down at the bench. She hugged her coat closer, the cold windy air of the morning hitting her legs.

"Hey. Is there a Dance Marathon going on somewhere in this freakishly small town?"

Rory looked up to see Jess smirking, with a large cup of coffee in his hands. She smiled, "I think I could tell you if you gave me that coffee in your hands." When she reached out to get the coffee, he pulled away.

"Hm. I believe this is _my _coffee."

Her eyes widened, "You are not that evil."

Jess rolled his eyes and handed her the coffee. "Okay, I'm not. But, you'll still pay for getting me up at this deadly time of day. Do you know that I had to drive for three hours just to go on a measly date with you?"

"I must be something, huh?"

"You must be."

Rory smiled at his compliment, and stood up, taking a sip of the coffee in her hands in the process. "Shall we dance?"

"Did you take that right out of a chick flick?"

"Hey, I can be cliché if I want to."

"Sure."

They walked towards Stars Hollow High, looking at all the lights that they had set up so people could take a hint that it's there. But, Rory noticed on the way, that Jess was not showing any kind of affection. Not even a nice holding hands session, he didn't even put his arm around her. She didn't know why that bothered her, maybe it was just the mood.

When they entered the gym, everyone was gathered around the bleachers. The town selectman, Taylor, was up on a podium next to the town gossip queen, Ms. Patty. They looked to be arguing about something or other, as he was clutching his megaphone.

"So, this is your town?"

"Yeah. It's basically just a bunch of people that should be committed all together." Rory looked around at her fellow town-folks. "But I love it."

Jess nodded, "It looks exactly like the town that would keep Rory Gilmore on her toes."

She chuckled at the comment, and took him by the arm.

"_All dancers on the dance floor, we're about to start the competition."_

There was a mad dash for the dance floor as the couples arranged themselves to begin dancing. Rory helped Jess with his number, pinning it onto the back of his shirt. She smiled proudly, and took his hand.

"Put this hand on my waist." She let go of his hand, and he immediately set it on her waist. She placed a hand on his shoulder, and they intertwined their fingers on the hands that they weren't using.

Jess used the hand that he had on her waist to pull her closer. "Maybe this whole dancing thing won't be that bad." Rory blushed, but looked up and smiled.

Before they could talk any longer, loud jazz music started to play. Their eyes roamed to the band that was responsible for the music, but before they could put any attention to this, Taylor announced that it was time to start dancing.

Rory and Jess started moving, she could tell that he wasn't exactly keen on dancing, but he was alright.

"I wonder where Paris is…" Rory mused, looking around.

Jess pointed to the entrance of the gym. "Over there?"

He was not lying, Paris came running over to them as soon as she caught their eye. A good-looking guy came after her, holding both of their coats. He dropped them on a bleacher, and walked towards them, holding Paris' hand.

"Hi," Paris smiled at Rory, and then cast a look at Jess. "Are you the over-mused-hair-freak that came with us on Spring Break?"

Jess raised an eyebrow. "I think you could come up with a better nickname."

"This is the jerk that had you all starry-eyed?"

Rory blushed, she couldn't help herself.

"Starry-eyed, huh?" Jess looked over to Rory, smirking.

"No." She denied, shooting a death glare at Paris. "So, your late."

"It doesn't matter, it's not like anyone noticed."

The guy who was holding her hand, stepped forward. "Hi. I'm Jaime." He shot out his hand, looking at Jess. Jess shook his head, but shook his hand. But Rory had some kind of conspiracy that it was sarcastically.

"Jess."

They kept moving as Paris and Jaime situated themselves next to them.

"And how long do we have to keep this up?" Jess moaned, holding on to her tightly. "Because I'm not exactly having fun here."

"Aww…your not? Because I was sure that you were just clicking your heels for joy."

"The whole sarcasm thing does not go great with you."

"Oh, and with you it does?"

"Of course." He smirked, and leaned into her. "The sarcasm just makes you want to get a hold of me and ravish me right here in front of everyone."

Rory rolled her eyes, "Your just full of yourself today, aren't you?"

The morning went on, and there was only a few minutes until the break, and Rory couldn't help but beam at the success of the evening. They had only been dancing for six hours, and it didn't feel like so long.

The horn blew, and Taylor's voice filled the gym. _"Ten minute break, everyone! Ten minute break!"_

Everyone stopped dancing immediately, and Rory sighed. "Well, that could have been worse."

"What do you mean?" Jaime asked, walking towards them slowly. "I thought it was pretty fun...me and Paris had a blast." (A/N: Please don't kill me. I really DO NOT know how to write Jaime.)

Paris looked down, rolling her eyes. "You kept stepping on my feet." She mumbled.

Rory looked at the quarreling couple nervously. "No. I meant that for the last few years, these dance marathons used to be none stop. But, now they've made the right decision to give us a couple of minutes of rest in between the whole dancing part."

"Well, if that's what you meant then we'll get along just fine." Paris exclaimed sarcastically, storming off.

"_Paris! Wait!"_ Jaime called after her.

Jess turned to Rory. "Well, that was…dysfunctional."

"Hey, it's Paris." She smirked.

Rory felt something buzzing at her side, and she looked at Jess' pant pocket.

Jess' cell phone vibrated in his pocket, he sighed, taking it out. "I don't really believe in cell phones…but, it's the easiest way to get around to people."

Rory nodded, "It's fine. Actually, it'll make it easier when I want to get in touch with you." It continued to vibrate and Rory smiled. "Take it, it's fine."

He glanced over at the caller ID and sighed. "Hello?"

Jess didn't say who it was, only walked off. Which made her wonder why he was being so secretive. She shrugged it off and wondered along the hallways of the High School. She hadn't been there before, and it was really different from what she knew in Chilton. For her, it looked much more welcoming, or maybe homey.

She noticed that the walls were covered in the student's writings, and pictures. In Chilton that would be unacceptable. And for a second it made her wish that she could have been in those welcoming halls in freshman year, it had been so scary for her to face all of those Chilton kids when she was nothing like them. Or maybe she was now. It was scary for her to even think that she was anything like those competitive monsters that she went to school with every single day.

Rory jumped when she felt someone sneak up behind her.

"It was Liz…she's been calling a lot." Jess explained, looking at Rory sincerely.

"Oh. Well, that must be nice." Rory commented, not sure to herself if it was. She wouldn't want her mother to be calling her every five minutes. "You scared me."

He sighed, "Yeah, well, you're out here in the dark hallway. That can happen."

Rory flinched. "Um, so, what did your mom want?"

"Nothing. It's her crap…I don't want to deal with it."

"But don't you think that it's good that she's coming to you?"

Jess looked down. "Actually, I would rather not know anything about her life…you know what, maybe it would be better if I wasn't their son. I think that whomever was stuck with the task of being in the same house as them for so long, was bound to end up screwed up."

"You're not screwed up."

"Whatever." He stated, looking around the hallway. "We should get out of here, people will think we're going to go and steal something."

"Yeah. Let's go."

-0-

It was hour 13 and Rory was exhausted. It was usually her bedtime, and she really didn't want to even have to stay up. But, Jess was being good about holding her up. But, he didn't talk much, which kind of bothered her in a way. What had put him in a bad mood?

"So, your less talkative than some." Rory sighed, dropping her head on his shoulder.

"It's not like your just chatting away here…"

"Okay, okay. Don't snap at me." She held up her hands in surrender. "Now, I know that this isn't exactly a memorable first date, and it's been kind of boring so far…but, I'm having a good time. Are you, because you don't seem like it."

Jess peered at the people around them, avoiding her eyes. "I'm clicking my heels for joy."

"You're being sarcastic."

"I'm always sarcastic."

She sighed, and let go of his hand. "Yes, but your not this way. I don't know. Just—I mean, you would tell me if something was going on?"

He looked in her eyes for the first time in a while. "Nothing is going on."

Rory nodded, deciding to believe him. "Alright."

She looked over his shoulder to see that Paris was storming towards her. "Do you know that this is the most boring stupid town function that I've been to in a long time."

"You've never been to a town function." Rory pointed out.

Paris sighed, "The date is a dud."

She rolled her eyes, "Jaime seemed nice."

"Yes, he's nice and smart…and completely good looking. But, why?"

Rory narrowed her eyes at Paris, as if she was crazy. "Why what, Paris? Are you creating a problem just to make our lives more of a soap than it already is? 'Cause it really doesn't need your help."

"Why does he like me?"

She looked over at Jess and threw him a look as if for him to let go of her so she could talk to Paris. He did so, and took out a yellow card. "I'll use this to get us some coffee, while you guys…talk."

Rory nodded, and kept on moving to the music. "Paris, you can't be serious. Your nice and pretty, he probably doesn't want the blonde airheads that he would get anywhere else. Sure, you can be a little bit hysterical, but it's part of your charm."

"But what if it's just all one big joke?"

"Have you ever considered the fact that he might just like you?"

Paris shook her head. "Guys only like you, they don't even take a second glance at me. You're always the brunette with the blue eyes, and the looks that the guys go crazy for. I'm not a real comparison to you."

"Paris, I don't think it was ever about comparing or competing." Rory have her a genuine smile. "I think that you should embrace these moments. There aren't much guys like Jaime left, you know. You have to hold on to the good ones."

"Is that what your doing with Jess?" She raised an eyebrow.

Rory looked down. "Yeah, at least I think so. I just wish that he would do the same with me."

"Well, I have to get back to my _date, _and apologize for being such a maniac. Thanks for the whole support…" Paris stood there awkwardly. "Do we have to do the whole weepy, hug and then tell each other that we're best friends forever? Because I skipped that part of the Sisterhood."

Rory patted her on the back. "Go before he gets scared off."

She did as she was told without question and scattered off to find her date.

"So, how's that situation going?"

Rory smiled at Jess, and took the coffee that he was holding out of his hands. "Not great, but it's going to be fine. How was your coffee hunt?"

"It turns out that I had to go all the way across the street just to get to Luke's Diner for a cup of coffee."

"Ah, your Uncle Luke."

Jess nodded. "Yup. We had a bit of an awkward moment."

"At least you get something…the last time I saw a relative that didn't include my parents was two years ago at Christmas when we went to visit my Grandmother for her yearly party."

"I would have thought that you had some interaction with your outside family."

"I don't even have a lot of interaction with my inside family." Rory scoffed. "I guess I'm the only sane one of the bunch." She sighed, "Anyways, let's not depress ourselves more than we have to tonight…now, come dance with me."

Jess gave a polite nod and took her hand. They positioned themselves comfortably on then dance floor as a slow song came on. Rory felt her insides flutter, although she had to admit it was a little cliché.

They swayed to the music while she leaned close so she could smell the Jess-smell.

"So, do I get points for this part or are you going to hold a grudge for waking you up so early?" Rory laughed, looking at the pained look on his face. "You can't say that this is not nice."

He nodded. "It's nice."

She positioned herself so her hands were around his neck. If possible, they were closer than they were before. Rory leaned in and looked straight into his eyes. "I think that it was worth it."

"What?" He cleared his throat.

"All the stuff that we had to go through to get to this point."

Jess leaned in and put his lips near her ear. "The best is yet to come."

"It amazes me that you can go from sarcastic-cocky-Jess to the Jess I have grown to love." Rory stopped as she realized what she had just said. "Like. I meant like. Uh, I messed it up."

He shook his head, chuckling. "It's what I _love _best about you."

Rory blushed, looking down. "Don't mock."

_Buzz._

They looked down at his pocket again, and Rory could hear him groaning. He picked it up out of his pocket and then shut it off. "Sorry." He mumbled into her hair.

"Why'd you end the call?'

"I knew who it was, and who it was going to be for the next few hours."

Rory swallowed hard, and pulled away slightly. "Your mother?"

"Just leave her out of this moment, I'm sorry she disrupted the whole dancing. But, I really can't do anything about that. Do you want to continue bickering or continue the moment?"

She looked down. "The moment's gone, Jess. And it's not because of the cell phone or the call, it's because you won't tell me what the calls are about."

"Nothing."

"They're not nothing, Jess!"

Jess looked around, people were staring. "Why are you pushing this? Do you have to make this something completely horrible for me?"

"How is this supposed to work?"

"What, Rory? We can't even get through one measly date without ending up yelling at each other." Jess spat. "The fact is that's none of your business, and I don't want to talk about it. So, can you just leave me alone?"

Rory opened her mouth as if to say something, but everything that ran through her head just made her feel like crying even more. She started breathing hard, and tried wiping the traces of sadness away. Jess looked at her accusingly before storming off into the night. She bit her lip and looked over to the people on the bleachers. Paris was sitting there with Jaime by her side.

"Rory,"

"Paris, not now."

She ran a hand through her bobby pinned hair and slumped out into the High School hallways. She had just been there hours ago, but it seemed much darker now. She slid down the wall, and sat leaning against a bunch of lockers. She placed her head in her hands and closed her eyes.

Rory felt like an hour had gone on and she was still sitting there. What was wrong with her? Jess looked so pained in there, okay, so maybe he didn't want her help, but what was going on?

She wiped her eyes with her sleeve and stood up shakily. Her arms hung low as she walked out of the High School. The first date was officially over for her. After she found Jess, she could go home and forget about it.

"Rory, are you alright?"

She heard Jaime run after her, when she had just stepped down the sidewalk. "Hi Jaime."

He sighed. "You've been crying."

"I don't like to think of myself as the kind that sits there and cries over a boy," Rory sniffled. "I must look really stupid in your eyes."

"I don't think so. But, I also don't think that he meant what he said in there."

She looked up at the sky above her. "Great. Another person that saw my most embarrassing moment."

Jaime looked at her hopelessly. She could tell that he was trying really hard, it must be a disappointment to get a case like this. "Paris wanted to make sure you were okay. And so did I. You seem like a nice girl."

"Well, nice girls are always the ones to get hurt, right Jaime?"

He walked beside her, trying to understand. "He's at the bridge, you know."

"Oh yeah?" She acted like she didn't care, but it really made no sense to do this, because anyone could have seen right through her. "Do you think I should go talk to him?"

"If you do, make sure you put on your shield. I don't like to see nice girls get hurt."

"I really don't think it'll happen again. Jess doesn't want anything to do with me."

Jaime smirked, and started walking backwards in front of her. "I'll be sure to tell Paris that you're alright." He walked off before she could tell him 'thanks' or something lame like that.

Rory thought about what he had said all the way to the bridge, but when she saw Jess sitting there, all of her thoughts flew out of her mind. She wasn't going to think rationally, she was going to think like Rory Gilmore, the girl that he asked out. And that girl was not rational.

"Jess!" She shouted angrily.

He turned his head to look at her. "Come to yell at me?"

Rory looked into his brown eyes and then her anger didn't seem so important any more. She shoved her hands in her pockets and sighed. "Look, I've just come here to give you the benefit of the doubt. You treated me like dirt in there, and everyone saw…and maybe you can get past that with all of the other girls, but really. Who are you kidding?"

"I don't treat other girls like dirt."

She looked down. "Oh, so I'm the only one who gets kicked around, now that's just great."

"You're not being kicked around."

Rory bit her lip. "I get it, Jess. You don't want me in your life…you don't want anything to do with me and you never want to see me again. Now, if I could make more sense of it maybe I could accept it."

Jess sighed and lit the ciggerate that he had been fingering for the past few minutes. She didn't have a choice but to sit next to him as he smoked.

"Why are you doing this? You were doing so great, and then suddenly you hit rock bottom."

"Trust me, this is not rock bottom. Maybe in a few hours."

"Now, I'm only going to ask you once…and now, you could tell me or just tell me to shove off." Rory stated, scared of what the outcome might be. "What happened?"

"Liz happened. She's a freaking psycho, but a tragic Trojan accident had to bring me into the world." He puffed the smoke out of his mouth. "She should sue."

"Pregnancy? Is that the problem?"

Jess sighed, and flicked his ciggerate into the water. "She came by my dorm the other day."

"Did you two talk?"

"She's having twins."

Rory's eyes widened. "Wow, Jess. You're going to be a brother to two? Do you know how great that is…your mom is going to be happy like crazy, and you'll be a big brother. It's the best feeling in the world."

He looked into the lake. "They're not Jimmy's."

"Oh."

"She's been sleeping around and drinking for ages…maybe it didn't cross her mind that the fact that she's cheating on her husband is going to bring some ugly outcomes." Jess swung his legs tiredly. "She's so damn selfish, maybe if she thought out something useful she could do something other than make my life a living hell."

"Jess, this isn't your problem. You know that, right?" Rory mumbled. "You should let your mother deal with it. It's her life, and she shouldn't be doing this to you."

He looked at her, blinking. "She has no one else."

"I—I don't know what to say. All I can say, I guess, is that now I know why you were the way you were. It was all a blur to me."

"I'm not going to grovel for your apology. But, you should know that I didn't mean what I said. It was your business, or it is your business now. Maybe I'm not great at communication, but we're just going to have to work on it."

Rory smiled, and placed a hand over his'. "It always turns out better."

He looked up. "You know, it's not always going to be this simple. I'm not always going to have a reason."

"We're both new at this, Jess. Maybe we could take it one step at a time."

Jess nodded slowly and leaned in. "Could we just not for tonight?"

Rory positioned herself so that they were in front of each other, fingers intertwined. He leaned in to capture her lips in his, taking his time to make her feel every single thing he felt. Heart racing, Rory knew that they would have to stop some time and it terrified her to death.

She placed a hand in the back of his head and played with the curls in the back of his neck. They pulled away, breathing fast.

"Stop. Now." Rory's chest heaved up and down.

He looked at her wearily. "What?"

"It's been a weird twenty-four hours…I think we've had enough."

Jess chuckled, and leaned in to brush his lips against her's again. But, this time he pulled away before anyone could deepen it. "Maybe we could just sit here."

"And sleep?" She added childishly.

He nodded and helped her position herself in between his legs, she leaned against his chest and looked out into the lake where the swans were swimming around. "And sleep." He rested his head on the crook of her neck.


	11. Monty the Rooster

Disclaimer: I only own the plotline and the computer I wrote it on.

A/N: Hi again. I took a lot of time to put this up, not because this wasn't written, but because I was considering discontinuing the story. I have a lot of Lit Stories, so, I'm trying to decide which ones should keep on going.

Anyways, I'm sure I'm boring you, so, I'll just finish the Author's Note quickly.

Please tell me if you want me to continue the story or not. Because I would really like to know so I can know if I should work on the next chapter. I hope you like the chapter, Please Review!

--

"Jess…"

He felt his eyes flutter open and he looked up to see Rory standing over him. He smiled for the first time in a long time, his first none-drunk smile, and pulled her down on top of him. He put his arms around her frame and sighed.

"You woke me up." Jess mumbled into her hair.

Rory smiled and lifted her head off his chest. "It's eleven o'clock in the morning. So, I kind of had to unless you want strange people thinking that events went on here."

"Events?" He yawned.

She shook her head, "Your officially out of it."

"Since when have you been up? Because if I remember correctly you were the one that wanted to sleep…yesterday. Or was it today? I don't know, you were the one that dragged me to the event, and now I am disoriented. Your fault." Jess dragged a hand through his hair and sat up.

Rory swung her feet over the water and watched him look around at his surroundings. She had been up for about ten minutes and she had just watched him sleep. When she was little, her mother used to tell her these stories that you could see everything about a guy when you watch them sleep.

But, Rory didn't find that very true for herself. Maybe it was because her mother was incredibly talented in reading people.

She hugged her jacket to her body closely. "So, what are you going to do today?"

"Don't know. You?"

"Study."

He shrugged, "Huh."

Rory shook her head, furrowing a brow. "So, what? Are we back to the monosyllabic Jess? Now that's not very progressive, is it? I just got you to a decent level of communication."

"Huh." Jess smirked.

She buttoned up her jacket, which resulted to her falling on Jess, shakily. "I guess I'm really out of it now too." She giggled, and tried to get up but without strength it just made her fall again.

He took her hands in his and dragged her up, so her head was now right above his'. Her slightly curly hair brushed up against his neck, which gave him goose bumps. He lifted his hand from the cold bridge and dragged it across her lips.

She closed her eyes, and placed her hands on his chest, lowering her head on top of the hands. Jess placed his hands in her hair, combing through it with his fingers.

"Do you think this could be defined as the perfect moment?" Rory asked, running a hand along his side. "If it is, I hope we have much more like them."

"You know what?" He gave a sigh. "I don't usually do this."

She could tell that he was wriggling below her, and she placed a hand on his arm as if to stop him. "Well, get used to it, okay? Because you are not going to get away from this situation."

"I'm not trying." He mumbled.

"Oh, please. I could feel the wriggling and the uncomfortable-ness, but your not going to get away. I'm going to make a new man out of you." Rory laughed playfully. "The guy that watches chick flicks with their girlfriend, and the guy that says sweet nothings…maybe it'll teach ya."

Jess looked at her in surprise. "Girlfriend?"

"Oh. No. I mean, if you ever were…or I was." Rory hit herself on the forehead. "I'm sorry, I messed things up again didn't I? I'm just a screw up."

"You didn't." He chuckled.

Rory looked up at him with her puppy blue eyes. "Can you consider me as anything as a girlfriend?"

"Well…" Jess looked at her sheepishly, smirking.

Her eye's widened. "Well? Don't torture me!"

"Maybe."

"Well, can I have an answer for you?" Rory sighed, looking up at the blue sky above their heads. She intertwined her fingers with his'. "I think that you could be my sorta boyfriend."

"Sorta?"

She frowned, holding her head high. "Well you wouldn't give me an answer."

"I don't think that what we have should have a definition."

"Aww…your just so cliché, you can't help it." Rory giggled, putting her head down on his chest again. "Maybe we should call you Jessica from now on."

-0-

He drove into the large driveway later on in the day. His eyes wandered all around the driveway in front of the great big house. The gardener, Ricardo, who came once a week was mowing the lawn with his shirt tied around his head. He waved politely and drove into his designated spot in front of the mansion.

Jess jiggled the keys on his thumb and opened the door to get out of the car. Once he got in front of the door, his stomach was jumbled up. Even with his mother and father, he didn't know what to expect. His mother was crazy and his father wasn't that sane either.

Before he could actually ring the doorbell, the door opened to show Jenna at the doorway.

"Jenna." Jess acknowledged her presence. "I didn't ring the doorbell."

She leaned in, "Well, I saw your car drive up and I thought that if I got here in time we could steal a couple of minutes before your lunch with your parents." He backed up, once he saw that she was about to kiss him.

"Um, Jenna, can we just please not today? Today's dramatic events are more important than some. Liz's expecting me, is she here?" Jess asked, leaning against the doorframe.

Jenna wrinkled her nose in disapproval; she obviously didn't like the idea of her not getting some that day. "She's upstairs getting ready. We still have some time to kill, Jess." She stepped towards him, raising an eyebrow in suggestion.

He sighed, "We'll have time later. Now, please let me through."

They passed into the hallway and Jess couldn't help but stare around at the house. Liz had obviously redecorated. Her moods always changed and then she would decorate until her fingers bleed. She would decorate and then you would know she was in a _mood._ He shook his head and handed his coat to Jenna.

"Tell Liz I'm here."

She nodded and headed up the stairs giddily.

He made his way into the living room/sitting area and sat down on one of his favorite couches. Jess looked over at the armrest, it had a grape juice stain. He smiled, the reason why he loved the couch was because of that very stain. When he was nine, he spilled grape juice all over the couch because he had been mad at his mother. He knew that the most precious thing she had was that couch. The maid could only get out some of the stain, and they were left with a slightly stained couch.

Liz wanted to throw it out years ago, but Jess argued that it was the best thing he could remember that had happened in his child hood, snickering. After that day, Liz just shrugged it off and told people when they asked about the stain, "Kids. What are you going to do?"

Jess tapped his fingers against the small coffee table beside the couch as he waited. He almost fell out of his chair when he heard Liz come into the room.

"My hero!" She shrieked. "Your on time. Aw, my baby."

He grimaced, "Your not drunk. Aw, my mother."

"Well, how can I be? No drinking until the _babies _are born. I have given up on that stuff a long time now. I seriously can't believe that I'm six months." Liz glanced down at her stomach, smiling brightly. She sat in front of him in a chair. "I'm so excited."

"So, does Jimmy know?" He didn't waste any time. He didn't go there to chitchat about her life. He hardly cared how she was; it was her who was screwing everything up.

Liz didn't meet his glare. "Honey, please. You are bringing the room down."

"Oh, so, your not fine with talking about this? You seemed very chatty when you came to my room. Actually, I'm very surprised that you aren't talking like mad. Now, why is this?" Jess asked, rubbing his temple.

She leaned in to her son. "This is not the time to talk about this, Jess. Your father will be home soon."

"So, he doesn't know?"

Liz flashed him a guilty look, "Please. Jess, don't tell him. I am looking for the right time to bring it up. And I don't want today to be a dramatic luncheon. Your father will have just gotten home from Japan. He doesn't need this."

He shook his head. "This is how it happens, you know. He leaves you alone and you just can't keep your hands to yourself. You have to screw everyone in town."

"Stop talking like this. Your so dramatic."

Jess clenched his fists tightly. "Huh. I wonder where I got that from."

"_Jenna, for Christ's sake! Get my bag, don't just stand there!"_

Jimmy's voice was heard and the conversation stopped. Liz sent a glare at Jess, telling him to shut up about the whole deal, and stood up to greet her husband. He stood up, just being polite.

His father walked into the living room with his mother clinging to him from behind, holding him by the shoulders. She guided him to Jess, where they shook hands.

Jess nodded at Jimmy. "I thought you would have taken way more time to get here."

Jimmy rolled his eyes, letting go of his son's hand. He shed off his heavy work jacket onto the couch and sat down next to Liz, with his hand on her thigh. "Thanks for the great welcoming."

"How long were you gone?" He asked, wondering.

He looked at his wife. "About, two weeks. Right, honey?"

"About that long." Liz eyed Jess. "That's why you should give your dad a good welcome. You haven't seen him for a month. Give your father a hug." She slapped his knee in an effort to get him to get up.

Jess frowned. "Hey, mom, don't you have some interesting news that you wanted to share with dad? I heard you mention something that will very much _affect _him."

Suddenly, Liz had a very nervous expression on her face. He saw her face was pleading him not to say anything, as she looked at Jimmy. He looked at both of them, while his father was looking at him with a questioning frown.

Jimmy raised an eyebrow. "What? Baby…what's wrong?"

"Oh, so you guys are back to sweethearts? How darling." Jess mocked them, tapping his foot. "I thought you two were on the outs."

"The outs? Me and your mother are fine."

He looked at his mother who was looking down; he could even see a few regrets and fears in his eyes. "Yeah. You are. Anyways, what's with the lunch? Are we going to eat or what?"

Jess saw Liz heave a sigh of relief before standing up. Honestly, he couldn't get why he just did that. Why would he help his mother who had hurt him so much? He should want to hurt her back. Jess stood up and looked at his father who was still looking at him closely.

"Is something going on?" Jimmy asked quickly, he had a determined look on his face.

Jess looked down, shaking his head. "No."

-0-

Rory woke up on a Monday morning just to learn that she was late for school. She groaned. Her alarm clock had been beeping for the longest time but she chose to ignore it. It was already eight o'clock and first period started at 8:45. August was already in Rory's room (like she did every morning) just because all the make-up was sitting on her dresser.

She sat up, looking at her sister. "I'm sorry, what are you doing?"

"I'm going through a gothic phase." August replied nonchalantly. "What are _you _doing? I thought your class started at eight something. You're usually a freak getting ready for school. Why the sudden slacking off?"

Rory frowned. "Isn't it a bit early to be annoying?"

"Where's the black eyeliner?" Her sister turned frantic looking for the piece of make-up. Rory rolled her eyes and reached over to her desk where the eyeliner was sitting.

She had a determined look on her face. "August, I'll give it to you if you get out of my room."

"But--"

"Out. Now." Rory threw the eyeliner out the door, where August lunged after it quickly. She smiled, happy with herself, and locked the door. She stepped forward to the mirror where she looked at herself.

Her appearance was not appealing. Her eyes were puffy from the lack of sleep, and her hair was a huge mess. She still had a bunch of bobby pins in the mess of wavy hair, as she hadn't gotten out of bed in a day. Maybe it was the exhaustion of being in a Dance Marathon, or maybe the emotional stress she had gone through.

Rory sighed, and walked into the hallway. Her mother was looking at herself in the hallway mirror. Her hair was perfectly up and she had a new top with a black skirt on. She turned to look at her daughter.

"What are you still doing here? Did a class get canceled?"

She shook her head, getting ready to get out of this one. "You know what? I'm actually not feeling well…you know, the huge jet lag and stuff. The Dance Marathon had me all stressed out."

Lorelai narrowed her eyes at her. "Do you have a fever?"

Rory knew she wouldn't get out of going to school unless she had an illness. Her mother was a freak like that, she didn't care about emotional anything. But, she could see that Luke was already softening her up.

"Um, I think I might." Rory said dramatically, placing her hand on her forehead. "I feel myself burning up. It might be best if I just skip school today. I don't want to spread the germs."

Her mother looked at her suspiciously, putting down the comb. "Well, feel better, okay? I don't want you to miss anything else."

"Thanks, mom. Have a good day at work."

Rory waved, her work done. She slumped into her room, closing the door after her. At least she would have more time to get ready for the outside world. If she had gone today with that horrible apparel than she would be sure that someone would have thrown tomatoes at her. She tossed her hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ears. But, she really wasn't feeling well.

She felt as if she could fall down from exhaustion any second.

Rory bit her lip, still asking herself what to do. In her brain, taking a shower and getting all the gunk out of her hair was on the top of the to-do list. She shook her head at herself, and walked into the bathroom.

She slowly took off all her clothes and stepped into the cold shower. It definitely woke her up and made her take a shower way faster. She finished with the bath, and changed into other pajamas.

"Hm." Rory said proudly to herself, her transformation was finished, as she pulled her hair up in a bun. "What to do? What to do?" Her eyes wandered around the room until she spotted her cellphone pinned on top of a small piece of paper.

She walked over to it and lifter her cell. Jess' cell phone number was staring her right in the face. She smirked mischievously.

"Hello?"

Rory's face lit up when she heard Jess speak into the other line. "You picked it up. I would have thought that you would be in classes…and maybe I could have left you a dirty message."

He chuckled. "I would have left the voicemail go on if I would have thought of your purposes."

"Are you in class?"

"Nope." Jess stated. "I'm sitting here in front of my parent's house."

Rory raised an eyebrow. She thought that he was still having issues with his parents. Why would he over there? Was he all right? Her mind quickly turned to worry mode. "Uh, why?'

"I slept over last night."

"But, yesterday you were with me."

Jess nodded, leaning against his car window. "After I left that morning, I got a call from the maid. She said that my mother had requested a family luncheon since my father was getting into town."

"Ouch." Rory grimaced, "How did it go?"

"Usual. My mother talked about the DAR and my father sent dirty looks my way." He sighed. "But, I didn't tell him."

"Your father?"

"Liz asked me not to say anything, and I just didn't."

Rory tapped her foot against her bed. She would have thought that after all the resentment that Jess had towards his mother he would have wanted to cause her some of the pain that she had made him feel. "Well, that sounds better than getting into a family argument at lunch."

"What? You think I did the right thing?"

"Your mother made the mistake, Jess. And you're being really great about it. But, I think that you should tell him if she doesn't."

Jess bit his lip, looking around at the help that were all re-painting the house. "She told me she would. But, I don't believe her. She's been lying to me all these years." He let out a long sigh. "I'm actually here to tell Jimmy."

"Oh?" Rory sat up, more interested in this.

"I should tell him."

She sighed. "What about your mom?"

Jess ran a hand through his hair, not knowing what to do or if anything was making sense. "Maybe I should leave. I hate it here and I'm pretty sure I'm going crazy."

Rory smiled, "Come here."

"What?"

"Well, your in Connecticut, come over. I'll help you, maybe we can talk more?" Rory suggested, smiling inside at the thought of him coming over. The best thing she could do at that second would be to see him.

He looked at his watch and furrowed a brow. "Why aren't you at school?"

"I'm suffering from exhaustion."

Jess smirked, "Ah."

"Come over please. I'm lonely and alone. Not the best combined. Just come. I promise, we'll have a relaxing day. Maybe watch a movie and sit there."

"Um," He looked at the mansion in front of him, and that was his final decision. "okay. I'll be right over."

She nodded. "Take a right at the giant Rooster named Monty."

"Excuse me?"

Rory smiled, getting up from the bed. "Call if you get lost."


	12. Open Relationship?

Disclaimer: Ha.

A/N: Alright, I know I'm not getting as many reviews as I would like, but I want to continue this story for me. I want to see where it's going. I'm glad a lot of you like it, so, here's another chapter. : )

--

Jess knocked on the Gilmore door that morning, getting ready to see Rory. He waited on the porch while he saw lights go on in the living room, before he could lean in to see what was going on, the door opened to reveal a smiley Rory in her pajamas.

"Ducks?" He laughed.

Rory narrowed her eyes at him, frowning. "Jessica."

"Fine. We'll play nice." Jess let out a sigh, following Rory into the house. She was very proud of what she had made the living room into, which was a comfortable place to watch a movie. There was popcorn and all kinds of junk food on the table, and there were a collection of movies sitting on the floor. He nodded, "Wow. I'm impressed."

"Well, I wanted to make this special. Our first movie night."

He looked around, "Movie day."

"Right. It's day time…but, we're just going to have to pretend."

Jess sat down on the couch, next to Rory, unbuttoning his jacket. He placed it on the coffee table and then looked back at Rory. "So. What are we going to see first?"

Rory smiled giddily. She was obviously excited. She picked up the movies from the floor and spread them out in between her and Jess. "We have classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the new one and the old one…although I'm musing that we don't have enough supplies. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest…I've been craving Jack Nicholson. Casablanca, a little bit of romance…"

Jess enjoyed watching her put up the movies and explain why she would like to see it, her face was so excited, it made him happy that he could make her happy.

"I've got Jaws and Carrie…I thought that I could see it again. Because last time I saw it, I got so scared I was basically watching the movie with a pillow in front of my face."

"Aw, the classic, put-the-pillow-in-front-of-my-face-and-I-won't-be-scared maneuver."

Rory smirked, putting down _Carrie. _"Been used many times."

"Besides, Carrie is more blood scary than anything. So, you have nothing to worry about." Jess replied, taking the movie in his hand, looking at the back.

She shook her head. "I think I'm more freaked out by blood than by actual scared-ness." She chuckled, and looked at all the movies. Rory watched Jess look around. "So, what's our first choice?"

"Jack Nicholson."

Rory nodded and took the DVD out of his hands, she popped it into the machine and then ran back to the couch. She sat stiffly while the movie started. Jess had an arm on the armrest and he was looking at her. They were pretty much very far away from each other.

She took the sign and paused it. "Since when did the atmosphere get so awkward?"

"Is it awkward?" Jess asked, looking down.

She nodded, biting her lip. Rory motioned to the middle part of the couch and then at him. "We're about a million miles away…and I can't pay attention to the movie."

"I'm sorry, but do you talk about everything?"

"Huh?" She asked, confused.

He sighed, "Well, every time something is a little bit different than what you picture it, you point it out and have a philosophical discussion about it. Why can't you let things be awkward?"

"Why let them be awkward when they can be better?" She held her head high. "I talk about things, Jess."

"Okay. Let's talk."

Rory looked at the TV again and let out a long sigh. "This could be mistaken for a first date. And, we're not really being friendly. We're so far away."

"Your right here."

She crossed her arms over her chest, "Obviously this doesn't bother you. I'll just play it." She un-paused the movie and Jack Nicholson's voice filled the speakers. She leaned heavily on the couch, slumping down.

Jess sighed and looked at Rory. She was not into the movie, but her eyes remained on the television. Her arms were still firmly stationed in front of her chest area and she was stubbornly sitting farther away from him. He shook his head at her, but moved over so their knees were touching.

Rory looked at him with a questioning look, he put a hand on her cheek and placed a passionate kiss on her lips. Her heart was racing and all she could think to do was kiss him back. He showed his excitement in the kiss and didn't stop until it was very necessary to breath.

"Not awkward?" He whispered, watching her eyes open hazily.

She smiled and shook her head. "What's the opposite of awkward?"

Jess smirked and placed another kiss on her lips, this time she deepened it by placing her arms around his neck. He somehow ended up lying down on the couch, with her straddling her. The movie was still going on, but all you could hear was them making out.

Rory pulled away, panting. "Shouldn't we stop?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Do you want to stop?"

"God no," Rory stated loudly. He chuckled at this. "but I think it would be wise to finish the movie."

He glanced over to the movie, and then back at Rory, who was still straddling him. The choice was obvious. "A little more?" He suggested, she nodded rapidly and they quickly were engaged in the same little groping session they had started.

-0-

"You faked sick just to go and make out with Jess?"

"Well, I didn't know I was going to make out with Jess…that just happened. It's not my fault." Rory flashed her a guilty smile. "But I did skip school…and I'm sorry, Paris, but you'll just have to deal with it."

Paris rolled her eyes, looking over at the board; Mrs. Camp was blabbering on about something and writing on the board. "He's having a bad influence on you." She was determined to make the whole date into a bad thing.

"He's not a bad influence. I'm here, aren't I? If I had really changed, then I would be partying with the Homies or something." (A/N: Is homies capitalized? Lmao.) She said, laughing, while she copied down the directions on the board.

"Just you wait, he's going to corrupt you and then you'll be begging for the day that Paris Geller warned you about the scum."

The teacher turned around and narrowed her eyes at the girls. "Excuse me? Is this conversation in any way related to science?"

Paris shot Rory a warning look, as if to continue the conversation. "Of course, Mrs. Camp."

"Alright then."

She rolled her eyes, "Oblivious."

Rory sighed, and turned her head to look at Madeline and Louise who were hearing the conversation very intently. "Privacy please?"

"What privacy do you want, honey, your in the middle of class?" Louise raised her eyebrows. "And…I'm with you on the whole making out with the hottie thing. He's not a bad kisser, I would definitely skip school for that one." She smirked, looking down.

Rory turned her head; almost hurting her neck of how fast she did this movement. Not a bad kisser? "How would you know how he kisses?"

"We totally had a one on one at Spring Break."

Madeline shrugged, "Who hasn't?"

Paris narrowed her eyes at her friend, she wasn't about to go and console her. "You see? He's a player, he's probably slept with every girl in school and you won't care now that he's gotten in your pants."

"He has not gotten in my pants." She said defensively, pointing a pencil.

"Close to your pants."

Louise patted Rory's arm soothingly. "Maybe he's changed."

"He called me his girlfriend."

Paris scoffed, "Has that line never been used on you?"

Rory started to shake inside. Was Jess cheating on her? But, he told her everything that was happening in his life. He couldn't be a player after he opened up to her. She thought he cared. She swallowed hard and slumped down into her seat.

"You see, now he's got you upset."

"You have me upset, Paris," Rory snapped. "Can we please stop talking about it?"

She waited out the period until the bell rang and she let out a long breath of relief. She felt like all eyes were on her in that classroom, she felt as if she was suffocating in pity. Rory made her way to the girl's bathroom and took out her cellphone, but before made sure that no one was in the stalls.

_Leave a message if you have to. And, Micheal, stop sending me those pornographic messages!_

"Jess. It's me, Rory Gilmore, I wouldn't want you to confuse me from the other girls that your probably dating that are Rory also." Rory bit her lip, "I just found out that not only did you kiss me that week in Spring Break, but Madeline and Louise. Who knows whom else? I just want to make it clear that I am not looking for an _open _relationship. It's just you and me. Period. So, either that's not a problem or it is."

She sighed; the machine would probably cut her off in any moment. "Call me back whenever you can, I need to get all of this straightened out."

Rory closed the call and shoved the cellphone in her bag again. She hugged her books to her chest and walked out into the hall where Paris was waiting for her.

"I needed to refresh my lipstick." She mumbled an explanation and walked to her next class with her 'friend.'

They got settled in their class quickly and waited for the teacher to enter, when the math teacher walked in with his natural greeting, was when her phone rang.

She panicked, not wanting to get into trouble for having a call in the middle of class. But, it could be Jess. She put her math book in front of her face and picked up her phone, slumping down. "Hello?" She whispered.

"Rory. I just got your message. I couldn't answer the phone, I was just getting out of a one hour lecture about not having my paper in on time."

She sighed, "I'm in the middle of class, I can't talk."

"Fine. Then can I talk? You can just listen."

Rory glanced over at Paris, who was warning her deeply with a threatening look. The teacher was sorting out papers while he made sure to explain last night's homework. "Okay. Speak."

"I didn't think or even think that you implied an open relationship, first of all. I'm not dating anyone else, and whomever told you otherwise is not very well." He stopped for a second, gaining his thoughts. "I might have dated people a lot in High School, but mainly it was mutual. I don't think this is mutual, is it?"

She widened her eyes. "I don't want to date other people, do you?"

Jess rubbed his forehead with his free hand. "I don't do dates with people I just want to fool around with. It's usually screwing sessions."

"And this isn't?" She whispered lower, the teacher looking her way.

"I don't think it is."

"Hm."

"And those kisses in Spring Break, you have no right to even say that. I remember very fondly that you went home with a guy. You're lucky that I just kissed. Besides, it wasn't like the kiss was anything."

Rory frowned, not liking the sound of that. "It meant nothing to you."

The teacher walked forward, looking at Rory. She lowered the phone. "Ms. Gilmore, is there a problem? I hear you whispering."

"Trouble." Paris shook her head in disapproval.

Rory sent a death glare her way. "No, Professor." She lifted the phone back to her ear when she saw that he wasn't looking. "Sorry."

"Rory, that kiss was the first one. It's not that it was nothing, it's that you didn't make it anything." He groaned, confusing himself. "Look, I can't deal with all of this right now, my head hurts."

"So what? We just leave it this way?"

"I like you, and there's no one else." He shook his head, smirking. "Complicated girl."

Rory openly smiled. "Monosyllibic boy."

She shut her cell phone off to make sure she didn't get into more trouble than she had already gotten into. Her classmates were staring at her as she lowered the book again and straightened herself out.


	13. Winter Wonderland

Disclaimer: I disclaim.

A/N: Hi everybody. I know it's been a while, and I've been updating my other stories way more than this one. But I'm here and continuing it. So I hope you like this lovely chapter.

I hope you're all still out there. And please, read on! I have a lot of plans for this story.

Thanks.

--

Jess woke up to the smell of coffee the next day, his eyes opened slowly to see Sarah standing over him. He groaned, and turned over on his stomach. He shoved her away as she tried to grab the pillow under his head. "Go away." He muttered into his pillow.

"I'll have to go into painful maneuvers." Sarah threatened, crossing her arms over her chest. "It will be so painful that you'll be begging for mercy."

"I highly doubt it."

Sarah raised an eyebrow, tapping her foot. "Fine. But, you asked for it." She bent down and looked at the one foot that was not under the blanket, she took a hold of his big toe and twisted it hard.

Jess let out a painful cry, "Are you crazy? Let go."

"Get out of bed."

"Then will you let go?" He moaned.

Sarah nodded, and threatened him with her eyes. He nodded resentfully and jumped out of bed, he was bare chested and with only boxer shorts. "Did you get lucky last night?"

"It's getting freaking hot, that's why the appeal." Jess muttered grumpily, looking at his toe. "You might have caused damage."

"No damage that was already done."

"You're evil." He scowled and stood up right. He grabbed a T-Shirt from his closet and tossed it on. "Why is it getting so hot in this building anyway? I thought it's supposed to be _winter_."

Sarah smiled, sitting down on his computer chair. "Well, the snow storm is supposed to be in a few days and we need to be all prepared." She pointed to her scarf. "It's going to be really bad."

"So bad that they'll cancel classes?" He asked hopefully.

She looked at him excitedly. "So bad that they'll have to cancel college altogether."

"I thought college wasn't cancelable."

"Me neither, but apparently we're going to be snowed in, so, their advising to go home. I'm so glad that I'll be able to go back to New York and spend a nice a few days."

Jess rolled his eyes, collapsing onto the bed. "See, the whole going back home thing does not sound appealing right now. I'd rather just die in a huge mountain of snow."

"I don't think that'd it's going to have an Austen Powers effect."

"Lose your mojo?" He asked, confused.

"No." She smirked. "Getting frozen until you feel like coming out into the world. You know, it's like time traveling except with the whole you have to be frozen for a hundred years."

Jess frowned, "You watch too much T.V."

"Anyways, get out of bed. We have a beautiful snowy walk to look forward to. It's already started snowing, it's just so pretty." Sarah said giddily. "And don't come with all of your macho crap."

"You sound like Rory."

She smiled and looked at Jess happily. "How's that going?"

Jess sat up and shrugged. "She's fine. We haven't been on a lot of dates, usually just movie nights. Which usually end with making out sessions. So, it's fine."

"Is it progressing any farther than making out sessions?" Sarah eyed him carefully.

He frowned, shaking his head. "Oh god, here it comes."

Sarah laughed openly, wagging her finger at his face. She kneeled before him, she couldn't stop laughing. "Now, you know no matter how many times you do it…there has to be protection."

"I'm not hearing this."

"No glove, no love." She laughed and watched Jess get up as he finished getting ready. "Oh no, don't leave…I haven't gotten to the part where you put the condom on the banana."

He shot her a look. "You are very annoying."

She smiled, standing up. "Aww…I know you just love me."

-0-

"I don't understand why your making me do this." Rory stated grumpily, hugging her sweater to her side. "You didn't even let me get changed properly. I'll probably have frost bite because of you."

Lorelai looked over at her daughter with a frown of disapproval. "I don't remember you talking so much. Why are you making such a big deal out of this?"

"Because. You don't speak to me. You don't communicate or even show an ounce of recognition towards me. And…your acting weird, you never used to have this vocabulary…your less greedy."

Her mother stopped walking and turned to Rory. "I'm never greedy."

"I don't even know you, why are you taking me out to breakfast?"

She shook her head, "I am your mother, you know me. It's not like I've been unreachable. I am always there for you, but you never reach out. Anyways, I'm not taking you just to have a nice breakfast."

Rory smiled, the reason of the breakfast finally coming out. She stopped her mother from going any farther and made them sit down on a bench. "As weird as this might be…tell me your reason."

"Well, I got dressed cutely. I'm always working or with Luke. See, when I do see Luke I'm usually in work clothes and it's all tense."

"And…?"

She sighed. "Well, I just want to make a life out of my job, I want to be able to see him. He's always saying that I should spend more time with my children."

"After all these years, you're choosing now to have a life?"

Lorelai bit her lip. "I've always wanted to. I was alive and young when I was with your father."

Rory rolled her eyes at her exaggerating. She leaned back at the bench, looking at the snow. "So what? You're saying that dad sucked out all the happiness out of you?"

"I didn't want a life after love."

"That's crazy."

She narrowed her eyes at her daughter, smirking. "You'll know when it hits you right in the face. It's like a huge cold wind and after it hits you, your left with it until the summer comes."

"And that's when…?"

"The heat is unbearable. You're suffocating every second of the day, and you feel like it's never going to end. Because, after the heartbreak the cold wind doesn't come again."

Rory smiled at her mother. "Is Luke your cold wind?"

"I want him to be," She mused. "But I just don't want summer to come too soon."

She nodded, understanding. Rory was understanding her mom, what was next? She couldn't believe that after all these years her mother was just heartbroken. It's not like she expected that everything would be fixed after that conversation, but it would improve at least.

"Hopefully things will be different from now on." Lorelai nodded. "It's like I've been in a rot for the past years…date after date, work was just getting stressing."

Rory wrinkled her forehead in confusion. "What are you saying?"

She shrugged, "I'll take it one step at a time. Right now, we need to get to the diner before they stop serving breakfast."

"Alright."

They got up from their warm spot and made their way to the diner, leaving Rory to think of the conversation they had just had. When they entered the crowded place, all she could see was a bunch of happy people with overly coated bodies lurking around. She hadn't been in there much, only once or twice.

A woman with blonde, curly hair came up to them immediately, smiling. "Your Lorelai, right? Aw, darling, I've been your neighbor for ages. I remember that this little one used to be playing in our yard."

Rory blushed, "I was only ten."

"It seemed that you wanted to be a tree doctor, always studying those damn things." She chuckled, "I'm Babette."

"I had just moved here, and I was kind of a book worm…so, it's all I could really think to do." She stuck out her hand to greet her. "I'm Rory."

Babette shook her head and hugged both girls, almost suffocating them. "Welcome to the real Stars Hollow. Here's where the fun is."

Lorelai smiled politely. "We'll be sure to make a note." Her eyes wandered over to behind he counter where Luke was standing, smiling at her. "Excuse me." She made her way through the crowd of people asking for coffee and placed a kiss on her boyfriend's lips.

Rory watched from afar, smiling secretly. She found a table right near where she could keep an eye on them. She tapped her fingers against the slightly old table.

"Rory?"

She looked up to see a Korean girl looking at her. "That's me."

The girl smiled brightly. "Lane Kim. I went to Kindergarten with you, I remember the eyes. We used to play a lot, and then you had to go to a private elementary."

"I don't exactly remember." She searched her head for a Lane, mentally kicking herself for not remembering.

Lane sat down at the chair in front of her and shook her head. "Don't worry about it. I'm kind of a freak the way I remember everyone. I don't expect anything."

Rory nodded, "I think I've seen you around town."

"Oh yeah. I'm the one going around with the drum sticks and pounding other people's cars." Lane stated, going on excitedly. "I want to be a drummer someday."

"I wish I could be as ambitious."

"Why?"

She shrugged, "I don't exactly know what I'm going to do."

Lane looked at her newfound friend in disbelief. "You must have an idea. I mean, everyone dreams about something hard enough that it just sticks in your mind that you want to be that."

"Uh…" Rory thought about it deeply. "Well, I guess I've always wanted to write. It's just a hobby, though."

"No, it's good." She smiled.

-0-

Rory stood on their porch that afternoon, it was snowing hard and their front yard was beautiful. It was better to be sitting there in the cold instead of being inside with Charlie, his girlfriend, and August. She shook her head, why must her family be so weird? She could hear the laughs from outside.

She looked out to the driveway and the only thing she could see was the thin layer of snow that had already stuck to the pavement. Rory looked out farther, since it was a small town you could see things down the street. It kind of freaked her out, but it was a useful tool.

"Jess?" Her mouth fell open when she saw him walking towards her from down the street. She got up on her feet and put her hot chocolate down just to run down the street to greet him. "Jess!"

He smirked at her, dropping the duffel bag he had over his shoulder. Rory smiled excitedly and hugged him tightly.

"What are you doing here? I thought you couldn't make it this weekend because you were hanging out with Sarah." Rory still held him with her arms around his neck, but it was mostly to keep herself warm, all she had was a sweater on.

Jess shrugged, "There's supposed to be a huge snow storm on Monday, and I guess that she advised me to come here instead of my house."

She smiled broadly. "You'll be staying?"

"I see someone's excited."

Rory frowned, "Why? Is Sarah coming?"

He rolled his eyes. "I see you have not lost your sense of humor." She laughed and let go of his neck, helping him with his bag. "It'll probably take you down halfway through the walk."

"Hey, empowerment to women. Why can't we carry the bags?" She bent down and placed a hand on the thick straps, she tried lifting it up but it basically pulled her down on top of it. She gave him the puppy eyes, "Help?'

He furrowed a brow, shaking his head. "I thought it was empowerment to the women, not embarrassment to the women."

Rory let out a sigh and stood up on her own, shaking the snow off her blue sweater. "I see you haven't loss your _bad _sense of humor." She quickly added the word 'bad' dramatically.

"Now, that's really mature."

"I thought so," Rory laughed. "Come on, I'm freezing."

Jess nodded and lifted the duffel bag on his own, throwing a gloating smirk her way. She rolled her eyes and walked ahead of him, wanting to get into the house because of the cold. He looked around at the property and it looked different. Every time he had been there, there was no snow, and it looked a lot less dull. He walked onto the porch and dropped the duffel bag.

She knocked the door with her fist, her knuckles were already white from the cold. "Charlie! Open the door right now!"

Before Rory could get into more of a screaming match with the door, a guy about his age opened the door, with a short redhead under his arm. He looked at Jess with a questioning look. "What? Did you find a male hooker?"

Rory gave him a death glare. "No. He's my--"

"Boyfriend." Jess finished for her, already knowing that he didn't like her brother. The redhead was eyeing him like if he was a piece of meat. "And you are…?"

"Charlie Gilmore. Her brother." Charlie looked over at Rory, who was kind of trapped in the middle of the two of them. "What were you doing out here all this time?"

She sighed, crossing her arms over her chest. "Drinking hot chocolate…and since when do you care, anyway?"

"Since now."

Jess eyed Rory and then Charlie. "Can we come in? I think she's going to turn into a Popsicle."

He pointed a finger at him, "I get to judge that."

She pushed her brother aside. "Oh my god, Charlie. Can you just go back into the living room with August? I really don't feel continuing this great conversation."

"Why does he have a bag? Rory, he is not staying here."

Jess let go of the duffel bag, it falling on the hallway floor. "I think she'll be the judge of that." He replied smartly looking at Rory who was smirking. "Where should I put this?"

"I'll show you to my room."

She took his hand, guiding him through the house. When they passed the living room, up the stairs, August called after Rory. "Hey, do gothic people eat popcorn?" She popped a kernel into her mouth.

"Who cares? Your not gothic."

August frowned, "I am. When will you accept the fact that I'm being worldly?"

"Being gothic is not being worldly," Jess pointed out, not being able to keep his opinion to himself. "Just saying."

Rory shook her head and started heading up the stairs again, they walked down the hallway, past her mom's bedroom, and the bathroom. She opened the door to her room, walking backwards. "What do you think?"

He looked around the room, taking it in little by little. In the middle, there was a queen bed, and all around all that really took your interest were the different books lying around. He saw her school bag on her computer chair, and a bunch of school stuff spread on her desk.

"Quite a library." Jess walked towards the bookcase, it took up most of the wall. He picked up one of the books that were laying on the shelf and examined it. "Hemmingway."

"Yuck. How did that get in there?" Rory walked over to him, snatching the book out of his hands. "August probably put it in here just to bother me."

"Why would it bother you?"

"It's Hemmingway," She said blankly. "I'm not a fan."

He raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Wow. I would have thought that you were more interested in him."

She scrunched up her face in disgust. "No. I find him very dull."

"Dull? The man's a genius."

"I thought you were smarter than that." Rory teased, letting go of the book. She sat down on her bed and sighed, patting the seat next to her. He gladly accepted the invitation and dragged her onto his lap. "I think this is working so far…despite the whole Hemmingway issue."

He furrowed a brow, "I think it's you who has an issue."

"Nuh-uh." She giggled, resting her head on his shoulder. "Do you think this is going to work as far as we go?"

"Depends."

"On what?" She asked, lifting her head off his shoulder.

He shrugged, placing his hands around her waist. "Depends on what your definition of 'work out' is." Jess neared his head closer to her's, he could feel her breathing on his neck. "See, this…" He kissed her softly. "Is what I think is my definition of 'work out.'"

She gave him a happy sigh. "You called yourself my boyfriend."

Jess frowned at her randomness. "Let's not analyze it, okay?"

Rory nodded, pulling him closer again. This time, she lowered her head to kiss him, which resulted him in deepening it. And it wasn't like those kisses on the couch, they weren't passionate or full of emotions, these kisses were the soft, tender ones that made them feel better. It was a whole new emotion for them, her breathing soon became in tune with his'.

She smiled, "That works."

He nodded, smirking widely. "Huh. Learn something new every day."

Thy leaned in again, only to have a loud knock interrupt them. Jess sighed and Rory climbed off of him, opening the door in front of her. "God, Charlie, you better have a really good excuse to come and bother me this time." She exclaimed angrily.

His brother rolled his eyes, "Whatever. Mom's on the phone and she wants to talk to you about this boy."

Rory gave her brother a death glare. "You so called her."

"It's not my fault that her phone number was on speed dial," Charlie smirked.

--

"This is the town square."

"I know."

She looked at him with a frown on her face, "How do you know?"

"I came here before, remember."

"Yes, but you didn't see the _whole _town. You saw bits and pieces, and bits and pieces doesn't give you the whole Stars Hollow experience," She smiled, taking his hand. "Trust me, it's worth it."

Jess rolled his eyes. "I don't want to be doing this right now."

She stopped walking suddenly, and looked at him with her arms crossed. "And what would you rather be doing?"

He smirked.

"Pig," She hit his shoulder.

He placed both hands on each side of her hips and kissed her deeply, resting his forehead against her's. She matched his smirk and placed her hands on his cheeks, placing little kisses on his bottom lip silently. She took his hand again as she let out a small laugh.

He only looked at her with a smile. "So this is the town square?"

Rory nodded, "Everything happens here, really. At day time, it's much more livelier of course. But, what can you do? Everyone's sleeping." He furrowed a brow. "I know, it's early."

"No, it's not early--" He paused to look at his watch. "—it's seven twenty. Are you kidding me?"

"I kid you not."

Jess sighed, stopping at a bench to sit. She sat next to him, resting her hand on his lap. "So, am I going to get to meet the famous town's people tomorrow morning?"

Rory's eyes widened. "Morning? I'll be sleeping."

"I wake up early…I'll wake you up."

"No you will not," She withdrew her hand. "I'll kill you, I swear."

"You're not going to kill me," He stated, kissing her cheek. "Imagine how dull your life would be without me." She laughed. "How boring would that be?"

Rory nodded in mock agreement. "Oh yeah, it'd be terrible."

"You bet it will be."

She seemed to be thinking about it for a second as she rested her head against his shoulders, shivering. "Don't die."

His smile widened. "Don't plan to." He paused for a second, looking at her tiny body. "Are you cold?"

"I--" Her mouth trembling stopped her from completing the second. "I'm fine."

"I should have known." He shook his head. "You are so fragile that you can't even handle the cold."

She pulled away from him, wrapping her arms around herself. "I am fine, Jess." He wrapped an arm around her.

"You want my jacket?"

"You'll freeze to death, forget it. Remember what I said about not dying?" She involuntarily shook in coldness. "It's just a little cold, that's it."

Jess stood up. "Let's take you home."

Rory shook her head stubbornly, "You want to stay here. I'm not making you go home. _I'm fine._"

"You know what? Freeze for death, see if I care." He sat back down on the bench and sighed, looking the other way. Then, a few seconds later, he turned back to her. "Rory, come on. Please."

Her teeth chattered as she trembled, her body wasn't feeling great. She nodded weakly and let him help her up. "I'm okay, though. It's just really cold." She knew this didn't help any, but she couldn't take that she was setting Jess back from staying out there.

"You'll feel better when we get back," He assured her.

When they reached the inside of the house, there was silence. Even as they wiped off their shoes from the snowy grounds, nobody stirred. And as they later saw, they were all asleep in front of the TV, with some Natalie Portman movie playing. They turned it off before creeping upstairs. Her mom wasn't home, so she was probably at work.

Without a word, they both fell onto her bed comfortably.

"I think I'm gonna take a shower," Rory groaned as she turned over to face him. He kissed her forehead, nodding. "I'm too tired, though."

He sighed. "I know the feeling." Silence. "I get the bathroom after you."

She rolled over, standing up at the side of the bed. "Or, you could join me?" Rory offered. He simply shrugged, closing his eyes. "Okay, you must really be tired."

Jess made an incoherent noise.

"Sleepy head," She mumbled before heading into the bathroom.

When she returned, the lights were out, and Jess's body still lay on her bed. She crossed her arms over her chest. How was this supposed to work?

She just sat on the bed.

He didn't wake up.

"Jess," She whispered. No response. He was dead asleep. So she laid down, taking a blanket from the end of the bed and pulling it over her shoulders. He stirred for a second.

And she could feel him looking at her. "Hey."

"Hi."

He rubbed his eyes, "I'm a light sleeper."

She gave him a small nod. "Right." Pause. "Were you going to take a shower?" She didn't want it to seem like she was nagging him, or telling him he smelled. She neared him. Actually, it was all the opposite. He smelled comforting. A faint smell of cigarettes, and some really good-smelling soap. It all mashed together into a very like-able Jess smell.

"Uh, yeah—I'll—I'll go do that."

Rory suddenly felt her stomach tighten. "You don't have to if you don't want to. I mean, I was just asking to know if I should get comfortable with--"

"It's good you reminded me. I want to."

She smiled, and placed both hands on his chest. "Go then."

Rory could feel his smirk. "I will." He neared his face to her's, the light on his cheeks. He drew his lips to her's and hovered over her. She pulled him closer to her with her arms and deepened the kiss. A few seconds later of heated kissing, he moved his lips to her stomach, kissing her bellybutton and then moving back up to her neck.

She gave him a happy sigh. Then, a not so happy groan.

He stopped kissing her, and moved away. She clutched her stomach and climbed off the bed, running to the bathroom.

Jess placed a hand on his head, moaning. "Jesus," was all he muttered as he heard a gagging noise.


End file.
